


Danganronpa: Division

by ShortcakeCrow



Series: Danganronpa: Dichotomy [2]
Category: Dangan Ronpa, Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Fan Killing Game (Dangan Ronpa), Fluff, Gen, Gore, Humor, Illustrated, Mystery, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-24
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-03-06 21:01:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 21
Words: 75,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13419564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShortcakeCrow/pseuds/ShortcakeCrow
Summary: A girl awakens with memories she'd lost before; watchful eyes follow her every step as the game is restarted once again.A direct sequel to Danganronpa: Duality; knowledge of the previous work is necessary for proper enjoyment as past events will be referenced quite often.





	1. Prologue - Her side

**Author's Note:**

> reading this isnt super necessary if you came from the first fic, but id like to think my writing has improved enough that ill be able to make a more satisfying conclusion to the storyline
> 
> either way, this will be the last killing game i write with these characters! i do have a couple more ideas for similar stories in the future, but they will contain completely new casts and will be in separate universes more than likely
> 
> if youve decided to read this, i hope youll enjoy it!

At first, she could recall nothing - her body felt weightless, as though she was floating in some kind of empty space, her mind numb, leaving her unable to think. In a single flash, though, it all came back to her.

Everything she could recall before from her childhood to her school years flooded back in one fell swoop, overloading her senses with an abundance of information. She felt her body take shape once again; the sensation of cold metal against her skin was only a little more bearable on parts of her body covered by clothes, leaving her bare arms plenty vulnerable.

She was lying on the floor, it seemed - her regained sense of balance told her so -, but apart from that, she had no idea where she might have been. Her eyes fluttered open uncertainly, cautious of being blinded by some sort of bright light, but the room she had awoken in was lit dimly at best, letting her eyes adjust rather easily as long as she avoided looking directly at the single bulb of light hanging from the ceiling.

Most of the floor was covered by a fluffy, white carpet - she pushed herself into a sitting position, scooting onto it to spare herself from the discomfort of her previous predicament -, and it seemed like some kind of bedroom. The room itself appeared to be in the shape of a semicircle, a pair of beds in its 2 corners, a large dresser and a desk with a chair the only other furniture to be seen.

The last thing to be examined further was the first thing she spotted upon taking note of her surroundings, and also the most suspicious element of it all: a boy with his limbs spread out like a starfish, seemingly in deep sleep.

Yokoyama Hiromi had found herself in quite the mysterious situation indeed.

She got to her feet, still trying her best to organize her thoughts - her memories were all over the place, as though they’d merely been hastily stuffed inside her head without much care or thought, and it took her a while to properly construct a timeline, the boy not moving in the slightest no matter how long she waited.

The last thing she could remember before waking up here was quite… disheartening, but at the same time, why she was in such a place made just a little more sense. The boy, she could recall seeing before, his name escaped her no matter how hard she thought about it, though - she must not have asked. That wasn’t all that strange, she supposed - she had no interest in anyone who couldn’t give her what she’d been hoping for.

She gave the boy’s arm a small nudge with her shoe as she peered at his face with a conflicted frown, but even then, he only muttered briefly before rolling over onto his side. Determination settling in her expression, she gripped his shoulders firmly, starting to shake him - when it seemed like that wasn’t enough, she let go of him to straighten up again, positioning one of her feet right above his groin.

_Actually, maybe not._

She wasn’t strong at all, but she didn’t want to cause any serious injuries even by accident.

Instead, she leaned forward to pinch both of his cheeks, almost straddling his chest in the process - she didn’t enjoy being overly touchy, but desperate times required desperate measures. Before long, the boy let out a faint whine, finally rousing from his sleep, and she let go of him yet again before he could ask her what she was doing.

“Finally… You sure are a heavy sleeper,” she stated in a dry tone, her hands on her hips. She’d stepped aside to let him sit up as well, her head cocked to the side slightly as she stared down at him.

The boy took his time standing up, turning his head in every imaginable direction, presumably to fully take in his surroundings.

“Well… This is certainly different,” he scratched the back of his head before his expression lightened up somewhat. “I guess I must’ve made it, then.”

“What are you mumbling about?” she raised a brow, only for him to shake his head rapidly, clearly hiding something from her from the start.

“Nothing, nothing!” he grinned in a lighthearted manner, holding his hands up defensively - she recognised the gesture as one people would make whenever her speech patterns got too accusatory, and she let her arms drop to her sides as she scolded herself mentally. Regardless of how confused she may have been, she still wanted to at least appear polite - if, for nothing else, to make it easier to cooperate with others.

She’d already learned this much; she should be trying her best to keep it in mind at all times.

“Anyway,” the boy continued, not giving her enough time to even attempt to pry, “do you recognise me? Like, at all?”

It was very much obvious that he knew who she was, which wasn’t exactly surprising - but he did seem strangely eager about it, which made her question just how much he really was aware of about what was going on.

“I don’t know your name,” she let out a sigh, “but I recognise your face, if that’s what you mean. Am I not supposed to?”

It was almost as though he was attempting to pry her head open and peer inside, the way he kept staring.

“That… Yeah, I guess that makes sense,” he cleared his throat, trying his best to compose himself and appear natural - Yokoyama wasn’t very good at reading people, but she’d picked up a couple of things after a while, and she could tell he had a lot more things on his mind than he was letting on.

Still, she played along for now.

“…You wouldn’t happen to know where we are, would you?” she inquired, the response exactly as transparent as she’d been expecting it to be.

“Nope, no idea,” he laughed - in an attempt to break the tension, perhaps. “Checked outside yet?”

He gestured at the door placed between the pair of beds, right in the center of the wall, and she shook her head slowly - she figured she’d try to talk to him before even attempting something like that. Just as he reached over to see if it was even open, she couldn’t help but click her tongue - he wasn’t even going to introduce himself, was he? Even though she’d already told him she had no idea what his name was…

“Hey,” she called out, getting him to turn his head for a glance in her direction, “aren’t you going to give me your name?”

_Why do I feel like you already know mine…?_

“Oh, it’s Kageyama. Kageyama Kazuma,” he replied, a hand resting on the doorknob, ready to turn it any second. “You?”

No matter how puzzling this whole scenario appeared to be, Yokoyama felt it best to wait to interrogate him until they had a proper grasp of their surroundings, seeing as how he appeared to be acting incredibly secretive - nevertheless, she had to admit it made her feel somewhat impatient.

She could put the big picture together on her own… sort of. She knew why she’d come here - if _here_ was anywhere near where she thought -, but she only had a vague idea of what could’ve happened between her awakening in this place and her last memory before that. It was incredibly frustrating, to know just enough to make her unbearably curious, but not be able to figure it out on her own.

She really was the least ideal person to be put in this kind of situation.

“…I’m Yokoyama Hiromi,” she stated finally, restraining herself with all her might. “We should at least know each other’s names… if we’re going to be stuck together.”

Kageyama flashed a laidback smile.

“Right.”

Once he actually opened the door, they were faced with a small hallway, a door on the other side. Would that lead to the exit…? It wasn’t as if they had too many options…

Kageyama had already walked ahead, sticking his head inside the next room with such little caution that Yokoyama felt irritation swell up inside her, wanting to lecture him so, so badly. Wouldn’t it be more appropriate in this kind of situation, rather than uncalled for…? She’d already reached out to tap his back to grab his attention when he turned back to her for a quick word.

“I think this is a game room.”

Yokoyama’s head fit perfectly between Kageyama’s raised arm and the doorframe, and she leaned forward to peer inside herself. She hasn’t even been to an arcade before - though attempts to drag her to such a place were also quite rare -, but just from what she’d heard about them before, the room seemed to be pretty similar to one.

 _She_ couldn’t recognise the games on any of the machines, but she figured Kageyama could.

“What _is_ this place…?” her tone was that of mild annoyance and disbelief; despite the fact that the lighting had been much, much better than in the bedroom they’ve come out from, there were still no windows to be seen, so she couldn’t make heads or tails of their location.

She grabbed onto Kageyama’s sleeve before he could walk ahead again.

“You should be more careful,” she advised, tone firm, making it obvious that she’d use force if she had to - though it wasn’t as if she could do much if he really set his mind to something, considering the height difference between them and all. “Who knows what you might walk into…”

Kageyama looked like he wanted to argue at first, but he let her convince him in the end with a halfhearted smile, shrugging his shoulders. Something felt off about his behavior, but she wasn’t sure what or why.

“Guess so. But we won’t get anywhere if we just stay here either.”

“I know that,” she pursed her lips, letting go of him once she was sure he wasn’t going to leave her behind.

At first, he seemed like he was going to say something else, but he simply gestured for her to come along, this time walking at a slower pace. Taking it as an improvement, Yokoyama followed, unable to help being somewhat tense.

The next room they passed through appeared to be a library - it was filled wall to wall with enormous bookshelves, a few tables and chairs scattered throughout, presumably to read at. The door on the opposite side, though, seemed more like the door to a vault than anything - a giant, metal plate, with a control panel next to it. A careful examination revealed that they had to use the control panel to both open and close it, for better or for worse, the identical panel on the other side of the door capable of the same functions. It didn’t seem like they could lock it - not that Yokoyama intended to.

Regardless, this new room was much, much different than any of the previous ones they had to pass through, and her breath caught in her throat once her brain properly registered what she was seeing. The circular space was almost completely empty, save from a staircase leading downwards right in the middle, but the walls were lined with windows between the other 4 metal doors they could see, letting them witness an unbelievable sight.

They were up in the sky.

Surrounded by nothing but clouds on each side, they seemed to be in some kind of gigantic tower, the ground not even visible no matter from where Yokoyama tried to look. She wasn’t especially afraid of heights, per se, but it did make her head spin a little when she tried to envision how high up they must’ve been, and she had to close her eyes momentarily to prevent herself from losing her composure.

Leaving through the windows was definitely not an option.

Feeling a hand on her shoulder, a shiver passed through her body before she reflexively smacked it away without even realising what she was doing. They were supposed to be on an island, weren’t they? And yet, she couldn’t recall seeing a building of this sort during the time she’d spent there even once - yes, they’d been definitely taken to a completely new place.

Maybe someone like this guy wasn’t going to care about such an absurd scenario, but Yokoyama was different - she was different from all the others. _She_ still had something she had to do, something she absolutely had to live for; she couldn’t afford to have it yanked from her hands in the last moment.

Grinding her teeth, she lifted a hand with the intent to smash it into the nearest wall, but she ended up dropping it again - it wasn’t as if she was out of chances just yet. Perhaps she could still find a way to stick to her original plan - it may have been wishful thinking, but she found herself clinging to the small amount of hope it provided.

She still had her determination, if nothing else.

“Yokoyama…?”

Kageyama sounded torn between concerned and helpless, and Yokoyama turned back to him with a newly composed attitude - at least on the outside -, her hands in loose fists by her sides.

“Let’s move on.”

Without waiting for a response, she grabbed him by the wrist to drag him towards the staircase - surely, those strange doors wouldn’t lead to a way out -, all sorts of thoughts battling each other in her mind as she descended to the floor below.

 _A lounge_ was her first thought; the space reminded her of waiting rooms she’d been to before, just a lot, lot more spacious than the ones she could recall seeing before. There were no more stairs to be seen, though there were also quite a few more rooms to discover - would one of those lead to the exit…?

Judging by the fact that apparently there were other people around as well, perhaps not.

A tan girl in violet clothes was lying across one of the sofas in the middle, wearing a pair of sandals with rather thick soles, one of her arms dangling off the side. Yokoyama recognised her, just as everyone else so far - they didn’t exactly exchange any words before, though. She didn’t seem like she cared enough to join in on the commotion that appeared to be going on just a little further away - one of the taller boys with countless piercings had lifted a blonde one by the collar, a curvy girl with an oversized sweater halfheartedly trying to mediate between them.

“Please calm down, Akiyama Keiji-san,” she pleaded weakly, seemingly a little nervous that he might direct his anger towards her instead. She was one of the few whose names Yokoyama could recall, partially because of the peculiar impression she’d left before by referring to everyone by their full names at all times - she was Sakurauchi. The one with the piercings was Akiyama, then, and…

The blonde one didn’t even take her a second to recognise. Even without coming here, she would’ve known who he was - the boy had pretty much been the only thing the girls at the college campus would talk about for a while, so much so that his name had practically been engraved in her brain.

“Whoa, let’s all calm down before we do anything hasty,” Kageyama rushed to his aid, placing one of his hands on Akiyama’s shoulder in an attempt to calm him down, without fear. Akiyama sent him a brief glare for a moment, letting the other boy crumple to the floor afterwards as he let go of him with a deep sigh.

“He’s still breathing, isn’t he?”

“Yeah, but still-“

Yokoyama walked right past them, her sharp voice directed at the one on the floor as she stopped right in front of him.

“ _Izumi-kun_ , might I ask what exactly is going on here?”

Kageyama didn’t bother with holding her back, instead carefully placing himself right in front of Akiyama before he could get violent again - a dark bruise on Izumi’s jaw along with some smudged blood around the corner of his mouth let Yokoyama know exactly what had happened before she arrived, and she clicked her tongue in annoyance - it might be hard to negotiate when people are already punching each other.

Izumi had to finish coughing before he could reply, voice still somewhat hoarse.

“A-ahaha… I wish I knew, Yokoyama-san,” he flashed a nervous smile, acting somewhat twitchy. “I’ve been saying it all this time- I have absolutely no idea!”

“He’s _obviously_ lying-“ Akiyama took a step towards him again, interrupted by Kageyama holding his arms out to stop him from getting any closer.

“Guys, we’re not gonna get anywhere like this.”

“I know that,” Yokoyama practically hissed, strangely irritated that she was included in that for some reason. Was Kageyama always like this…? The times when she did come across him, he didn’t even seem nearly as assertive as he was being right now.

Izumi got to his feet on shaky legs, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand hastily.

“Shouldn’t we be asking Fujinomiya Kotori-san if he doesn’t know…?” Sakurauchi suggested, obviously not too keen on such a violent interrogation. Izumi agreed just a little too fast and loudly, but the person who spoke up next wasn’t who Yokoyama expected.

“She’s probably not here,” Kageyama replied reflexively, freezing for a moment after he realised what he said.

He was lifted from his feet with a small yelp but none other than Akiyama, and Yokoyama turned her back on Izumi with a quiet groan under her breath. He flailed his limbs a little before he grabbed onto the taller boy’s wrists in an attempt to pry his hands off, _now_ starting to look a bit more nervous than before.

“Oh, no, no, no, I know that sounded suspicious but-“

“Well, _obviously_ it sounded suspicious! If you know something, spill it!” Akiyama shook him around a little, Sakurauchi helplessly shifting around in the meantime. Yokoyama was just about to raise her voice when the girl on the sofa finally lifted her head, her tone resembling that of Yokoyama’s own during her first hangover.

“It’s not like that’ll make him wanna tell you…” cheek squished against the fabric of the sofa, she let out a small yawn. “Y’all need to take a chill pill… You’re being way too loud.”

Before Akiyama could get back to what he was doing before, Yokoyama finally joined in.

“She’s right, so put him down. I need him in one piece for now.”

“For now, huh…?” Kageyama breathed a small sigh, but his attitude completely returned to normal even after being dropped the same way Izumi had been.

Akiyama turned away to instead take a seat on one of the chairs nearby, tapping one of his feet impatiently, muttering curses under his breath - at least it seemed like he’d stay put for a little while. Holding out a hand for Kageyama to take, Yokoyama helped him to his feet, staring at him expectantly afterwards.

“I assume it wouldn’t be too much to ask to receive an explanation after that?”

The boy sheepishly combed his fingers through his hair.

“That’s fair, but- I… wanna make sure everyone is alright first,” he shoved his hands into his pockets. “Well, more like… if everyone is here, I guess.”

“There were 5 doors up there…” Yokoyama tapped her chin slowly, turning to Sakurauchi for a quick question. “Were the rest of you in pairs too?”

“From what I’ve seen…” Sakurauchi nodded, eyes scanning the room briefly. “Uhm- Takahashi Yuki-san was also paired with Komatsu Yui-san, but he left back the way they came from earlier… I think he’s probably still there.”

Komatsu was the girl on the sofa, then… Yokoyama strained her memory; all she could remember about Takahashi was that he was really, really tall, honestly.

Sakurauchi pointed at Izumi.

“Izumi Mamoru-san was here before all of us; I was the first one to come down after that with Akiyama Keiji-san.”

Right… Yokoyama couldn’t quite recall how many people were supposed to be present, but just based on the way Kageyama had talked before, probably not everyone. She wasn’t sure what to make of it yet, though, especially since Izumi didn’t quite seem to understand the situation either.

“That would make 11 people altogether, wouldn’t it?” she half-mumbled, kind of lost in thought for a moment. “5 pairs, and then Izumi-kun… Well, unless he woke up with someone else too.”

She didn’t even need to pry for a response this time, which was certainly nice.

“No, I’m pretty sure I was alone,” Izumi chimed in, in the middle of leaning against the wall, albeit quite a bit further than before - possibly to be able to avoid getting hit again. “But, but- it’s not as if that makes me suspicious, you know. I’m just special like that; obviously I’d get my own space.”

Kageyama _really_ seemed like he wanted to say something, but he ended up swallowing his words, clearing his throat instead.

“Should we go check up on the others who are still upstairs, then? Just in case…”

“Good idea; you can lead,” Yokoyama tapped his back a few times as a sign for him to get to walking, jumping at the opportunity to get some alone time - violence was out of the question, but she knew several ways to get someone to talk without involving any sort of physical force.

Kageyama remained oblivious to her thoughts, but, in the end, she didn’t turn out to be able to put them into motion - a girl in a purple hoodie and a backwards baseball cap stood by one of the doors from before, clearly not knowing what to do with herself, fidgeting a little. Yokoyama paused; maybe she really should stick to her original plan and finish investigating before she takes any kind of action.

It didn’t seem like she was going to get a choice for a while, at least.

Approaching the girl, Yokoyama tried her best to remember her name - she really should’ve paid more attention to the others before, but she’d always found herself much too anxious to really focus on anything that wasn’t important enough.

It was right on the top of her tongue…

“Ha… Hayama-san?”

Her shoulders dropped slightly with relief as the girl turned around; she’d gotten it right after all.

“Oh… Am I in the way here? I’m sorry…” Hayama stepped off to the side, her gaze on the floor, kind of trying to shrink from the other two’s gaze. “Nakajima-kun didn’t want to come out, but… I wasn’t sure if it’d be okay for me to just leave by myself…”

“You can stay here, or go downstairs to the others, suit yourself,” Yokoyama shrugged - something about this kind of tone always irritated her a bit. “We’re just looking around anyway.”

_Trying to find an exit, that is._

Kageyama was already quite a few steps ahead by the time Yokoyama caught up to him, busy calling out to Nakajima - who seemed to have blocked the door to the bedroom with something. Yokoyama couldn’t say she was surprised - he’d been a troublesome one to deal with from what she could see even before they ended up here.

Kageyama knocked on the door again.

“Dude, you sure you wanna just stay in there?”

A muffled, high-pitched noise sounded from the other side, akin to some kind of whimper.

“Y-you people sure are persistent… Don’t you have better things to do?” came the response, leaving Kageyama and Yokoyama both at a loss. Hayama carefully peered at them from the other side of the hallway, still outside the door, and Yokoyama buried her face in her hands for a short moment before she gathered her composure again.

“Let’s just get back to him later… Or better yet, let’s just leave him be,” she crossed her arms with a stern look. “He won’t be much help anyway, and I’d rather not have to babysit him to keep him out of trouble.”

Hayama didn’t seem like she’d be leaving just yet anyway, so at least she could watch over him… or something.

Kageyama glanced between her and the door a few times, not really knowing if he should really go along with Yokoyama’s idea, and she narrowed her eyes for a short moment before she gestured for him to come with. As she passed by Hayama yet again, her farewell was in the form of a small nod, stopping a few steps away from the staircase.

4 of the metal doors were open now, only one left to check for more people. Yokoyama still had to wonder what the point of all of this was - there were security cameras and monitors placed throughout the place, so it was possible someone was watching them. The thought kind of gave her the creeps.

She was surely going to investigate the doors downstairs once she was done with this floor.

She took it upon herself to open the last metal door, Kageyama tensing up a little behind her - strange; he was starting to get sort of fidgety again -, coming across an L shaped hallway right away. It seemed like all the rooms so far had been somewhat unusually shaped - even downstairs, she could see some more triangular ones. Approaching the door on the other side, she didn’t manage to get close enough to actually reach the doorknob, as it slammed open in the last second, almost smacking her in the face had Kageyama not yanked her back just in time.

A girl with long, silver hair rushed outside, Kageyama only managing to stutter out a quick ‘Aragaki-san’ as she bolted past them; Yokoyama didn’t have to wonder for long about who or what she might’ve been running from, as a boy with a scarred face and glasses soon followed. Kageyama had disappeared within a second, chasing after the girl, and Yokoyama clicked her tongue as she grabbed onto his jacket, almost tripping over in the process.

At least he stopped once he realised she was hanging on.

“Ah, Yokoyama-san… I see there are others here as well, then,” he raised a brow, Yokoyama quickly letting go soon after with a small shiver. Another name that she could recall, mostly because of how creepy he always came off, and how often she heard his name being said when he was being scolded by someone - Natsume.

“What did you do this time…?”

“’This time’? I cannot possibly comprehend what you mean by such phrasing,” he tilted his head. “To answer your question, though… I do not believe to have done anything out of the ordinary. I was hoping to question Aragaki-san, but she had ran off before I could get a word in. It was rather confusing, I must admit.”

Knowing this guy… that wasn’t too surprising.

Yokoyama let out a sigh, instinctively lifting her hands in an attempt to massage her temples before her developing headache from this could get any worse.

If she ticked off the people they’d come across so far… the missing ones were Fujinomiya, the short boy with the baby face, the boy who was almost always dozing off, the tall girl who was practically skin and bones, and the girl dressed in suspiciously expensive-looking clothes.

That was 5 people missing, with 11 others present.

Why those ones in particular…? She was sure Kageyama knew the answer, but she had to find him first to get it out of him; she’d restrain him later if she didn’t have any other means of keeping him in place.

Before she could take even a single step away, though, the monitor in the hall was suddenly turned on, displaying video feed of a monochromatic cat plushie sitting in some kind of office chair.

“Is everyone up yet? You guys are all awake already, right? Right?”

Yokoyama was so stunned she barely even reacted at first.

“It’s time to finally start the 21st killing game! I hope you are all just as excited as I am!”

Killing game…? What was this weird stuffed animal talking about?

The cat clapped its paws together.

“Please gather in the lounge as soon as possible so we can get the rest of the introductions out of the way; you’ll be told the rules of the game once everyone is there!”

And with that, the screen cut to black.

Waking up in a completely unfamiliar place with a bunch of almost-strangers and generally confusing circumstances, and now having to put up with someone talking through a plush - Yokoyama wanted to submerge her head in ice cold water, either to make sure she was wide awake already, or to get a moment of break from the sudden increase of stress she was already experiencing.

Still, she supposed she had no choice but to go along with the request for now.


	2. Prologue - His side

He’d spent the night drifting in and out of consciousness yet again, though he knew none of the others would approve of it - Kageyama wasn’t here to scold him, though, or at least convince him to take a quick nap, and all the others were occupied at the moment, so he knew they wouldn’t be coming by to check up on him.

It wasn’t like he enjoyed forcing himself to stay up - he’d never had much of a willpower to do these sorts of things, and it was incredibly boring with nothing to pay attention to -, but it did lessen his guilt a little, just a _little_ , and that was enough for him to follow through with it. Even if he didn’t have much of a choice, he still felt like he was at least partially responsible for the mess they’d ended up in.

He was even tempted to ask Fujinomiya of all people for help, but he was sure she’d find a way to get him to achieve the exact opposite of what he wanted to.

Hanamiya Takashi had been faced with a dilemma that was indeed quite difficult to solve.

He didn’t regret restarting the program, not one bit - even if something were to happen to anyone inside, they’d still end up with more people who could be awoken in the end -, even if it did end up going wrong this time around again. No, what he regretted was listening to Kageyama when he reassured him a billion times that it would be just fine to let him go. Yes, it would’ve been probably for the best if someone who actually remembered the previous killing game was present, and they didn’t have too many options when it came to picking who would go, but still… He supposed he found it frustrating that he didn’t end up being all that useful in the end.

Without someone who could modify or at least properly understand the program, his hands were basically tied, and all the information he could obtain was limited to what footage he was actually capable of accessing.

From what he could tell, everyone with the exception of Kageyama had regained their memories of before the game, for better or for worse. The A.I. was just probably looking for a way to make the situation as chaotic as possible, which was definitely not a fun thought, but it wasn’t like he could just ignore it.

And honestly… as well-meaning as Kageyama was, he was acting almost painfully incompetent - though he was sure it was at least better than whatever he himself would’ve been able to pull off.

Removing his glasses, he massaged his temples slowly, wondering if there was even any way to fix the situation definitively. If the A.I. was just going to intervene every single time, could they get _everyone_ out? Maybe not, maybe there was no point in clinging to such a half-assed hope to begin with - but then again, these kinds of half-assed hopes were exactly what he was used to even before all of this.

Expect the worst but hope for the best, huh…

Using the wall to stand, he almost felt the floor slip from under his feet as he got up, still extremely lightheaded from the lack of sleep. So far, everyone inside the program seemed to be at least in one piece, if nothing else, but even though he’d done so so many times before, he still wanted to investigate the area again to see if there was anything _he_ could do.

Chiba was very much occupied with Fujinomiya, that much, he knew. He’d snapped at him every time Hanamiya went to check up on him too, and though he always apologised afterwards, it was a testament to how draining it could be to constantly be around someone like Fujinomiya.

Tsutsui and Minamoto were… well, off doing whatever. Whenever Hanamiya happened upon them, they were either playing some kind of game or teaching each other about something the other wasn’t quite good at. So… they were having fun, for the most part.

Hanamiya had only _really_ hung out with Kageyama before, though - or at least he was only used to actively spending time with him, which meant he’d be pretty much all by himself until he came back, unless he either wanted to tag along as a third wheel with the girls, or be the subject of Chiba’s cursing yet again. Needless to say, he wasn’t particularly fond of either option, so until now, he’d settled for sulking by himself like some kind of tragic anime character.

Maybe it was selfish to be wishing to have fun right now - maybe that’s why he was so adamant on making his spare time even more unbearable than they would’ve been with a proper night’s sleep -, but even then, the feelings remained. He was really, _really_ starting to miss the games he’d always played at home, the manga he’d buy weekly to then read in his bed, flopped over and still in pyjamas, the times his mother would buy ice cream which he would then sneak into his room to lazily devour as he tried to figure out what to do with his latest script.

He wanted to be back to living his normal life, taking things at his own, slightly sluggish pace, comfortably watching life pass him by - and yet, with each passing day, he was reminded over and over that the ‘normal’ life he’d be going back to would be much less colorful than he remembered it being. He was way past high school age, for god’s sake… What was he supposed to do now; find a job and a place to live on his own?

It felt like he’d been stuffed into the wrong body - which, in a way, was true.

Before he knew it, his legs have carried him to the beach; the island wasn’t unusually huge or anything, so the water had never taken him too long to reach. The setting sun had painted the sky a warm orange, and the waves of the ocean sparkled so brightly he couldn’t quite look at them directly.

He didn’t mind his now soaked shoes as he came to a stop atop one of the further rocks, letting the water wash over his ankles every once in a while; he’d gotten used to coming here each time he felt overwhelmed by his own thoughts, not too concerned with the possibility of falling flat on his ass with some dizziness still very much lingering.

The sunset very much gave him the feeling of familiarity he was looking for.

He was only hoping Kageyama would come back soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i actually have intermissions like this planned regularly throughout the story, partially because id still like to give the past survivors some attention every once in a while, and partially because i personally think theyre a neat way to see into a characters psyche and display development :,)) there wont be too many, though, im thinking of only doing one after every trial (or arc/big chapter, if you will)  
> next chapter we shall be back to following our new protag and discovering more Important Things


	3. Chapter 1, Daily Life - Odd one out

Yokoyama wasn’t the last one to arrive, surprisingly - no, that was Takahashi, shuffling far behind everyone else with a hunched over posture, which, coupled with his height, was about as ineffective at making him look smaller as expected. Nakajima had been dragged outside by Akiyama, shrieking and kicking around like an unruly child the entire time until he was unceremoniously flung onto one of the sofas - Yokoyama wasn’t going to complain for him.

Once everyone had gathered, certain people standing extremely, _extremely_ far away from each other, the monitors turned on again, displaying the same stuffed animal as before. Then again, it was also moving, so… it might’ve been more accurate to call it some kind of robot or puppet.

“Hi there, kiddos- Oh, oops, I guess you’re not really kids anymore, are you?” the cat tilted its head briefly before shrugging its shoulders. “Whelp, it’s close enough!”

Hayama anxiously lifted one of her hands, as though afraid to even interrupt, mouthing the words ‘Can it hear us?’ as she gestured towards the screen, only to react with a tiny yelp as she was reprimanded by said animal.

“Whispering in company is definitely rude, you know! Didn’t your parents teach you any manners?”

Kageyama seemed suspiciously composed.

“In any case, let’s cut right to the chase!” the cat clapped its paws together. “You guys are looking forward to your next killing game, right? Of course you are; it’s a very exciting event!”

“What do you mean ‘next’?” Yokoyama immediately interrupted, of course, staring at the closest monitor with an unimpressed frown. “And what’s with the cat…?”

“I _am_ the cat, sheesh…!” said cat grumbled, apparently very committed to the roleplay it was doing. Judging by the high-pitched, robotic voice, it honestly could’ve been anyone - surely, it was just the effects of a voice changer. “But I have a name too… Did you forget about me, _Yokoyama-nyan_?”

Her face scrunched up just a little more in both annoyance and disgust with the nickname.

“Don’t call me that…”

“You forgot, you definitely forgot! Even though I’m so, _so_ important!” the cat continued whining, making Yokoyama’s head hurt a little with the volume; she took a deep breath, silently counting to 10 to keep herself from snapping. “Listen up: my name is Mononeko, and you guys better not forget it the next time!”

The cabinet near one of the doors snapped open, a bunch of gadgets clattering over the floor in the process.

“I’ll give you your handbooks anyway, but I’ll only forgive you just this once. In this world, I rule over you all, so you better respect me!” Mononeko demanded, some of the others already taking a few glances in the direction of the so-called handbooks.

Kageyama picked one up without further ado, turning on the screen - Yokoyama was familiar enough with tablets to class it as one without much trouble.

“You can find the rules of the game on your handbooks, so make sure to read them veeeery carefully… because I’m not giving you another one if you lose yours.”

Playing along with something so stupid was the last thing Yokoyama wanted, but she also didn’t want to miss out on any important information she might’ve been able to obtain, so after a quick, narrow-eyed look at the tablets, she picked one out herself, turning the screen on. The menu was rather simple; there were only 2 icons, and one of them wasn’t even able to be opened. The other one opened up some kind of fancy-looking text document consisting of 9 pages she could flip through pretty fast, scanning the letters in next to no time.

Each page seemed to contain one of the rules Mononeko had mentioned.

_Rule #1: You are free to investigate the area at your own discretion. Your actions in this regard are not limited._

_Rule #2: Destroying any property of Mononeko without permission is expressly prohibited. This includes the surveillance cameras and monitors._

_Rule #3: "Nighttime" is from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. The planes take off every night, so please exercise caution._

_Rule #4: Once a murder takes place, a class trial will begin shortly thereafter. Participation is mandatory for all surviving students._

_Rule #5: If the blackened is exposed during the class trial, they alone will be executed._

_Rule #6: If the blackened is not exposed, the remaining students will be executed._

_Rule #7: As a reward, the surviving blackened will be forgiven of their crime and allowed to leave the killing game._

_Rule #8: The Body Discovery Announcement will play as soon as three or more people discover a body for the first time._

_Last Rule: Additional rules may be added at the teachers' discretion._

Yokoyama’s head was spinning, trying to fully comprehend what she was reading. Was this what that weird cat meant by a killing game…? But _surely_ , nobody would be stupid enough to fall for something like that… It wasn’t like there was any guarantee that they’d be let out so easily either.

Even aside from those bits, there was one more part that was most definitely questionable; Yokoyama was sure she hadn’t seen any planes on the way over here, so what was that all about? Her fingers tightened around the tablet more and more, skin turning white, as though she wanted to snap it in half - but, tempting as it was, she knew it wouldn’t be a good idea.

“Oh, Yokoyama-nyan, you might wanna be a bit more careful with that,” came Mononeko’s voice, leading the girl to grind her teeth briefly as she turned around to look at him again. “I’m lending you the handbooks because I’m just so, so nice, but they still belong to me… so do your best not to break them! Or else you’ll be punished.”

She clicked her tongue in annoyance.

“Punished…?”

“You’ll be executed, of course!” Mononeko replied, nodding to himself quite rapidly. “I am the god of his world, which means you can’t just sneak behind my back. And you can be sure that I _won’t_ be merciful if I find you doing anything that’s prohibited!”

As soon as he finished speaking, some sort of alarm came on - Yokoyama winced, unable to help but cover her ears to at least partially shield them from the high-pitched noise. She wouldn’t have been surprised if she was going to develop a migraine today.

“Uh oh, looks like my time is up…” Mononeko noted with another tilt of his head. “I’ll be sure to talk to you guys later, though, so be good until then! And remember: I’m always watchiiiing…”

As the last syllable faded out softly, the monitors turned off the same way they had before, and the room was filled with a thick, uncomfortable silence, making Yokoyama feel as though she was suffocating for a moment. As much as she hated to admit it, though, she didn’t want to just stay in denial; she couldn’t be sure whether at least one of these guys would be gullible enough to actually try to go through with such a thing.

She definitely wasn’t going to trust anyone on a whim, that much, she was certain of, if nothing else.

Her attention was directed to Akiyama as he let out a frustrated sigh.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, let’s just break them. It’s probably just a stupid prank.”

However, as he lifted the tablet to presumably smash it on the ground, fingers curled firmly around his wrist, holding it in place momentarily. Takahashi seemed rather conflicted, but he didn’t look like he was going to let go anytime soon until Akiyama calmed down again.

“…Please just go along with it for now,” Takahashi requested in a somewhat meek, reserved voice, receiving a shove to the shoulder immediately afterwards. Still, his efforts didn’t appear to be in vain; Akiyama had lowered his arm with an exaggerated roll of his eyes, tablet still safely in hand.

Pinching the bridge of her nose briefly, Yokoyama took a deep breath.

“Instead of acting like toddlers, how about we try to look for an exit?” she proposed, voice stern enough to stop the more timid ones from objecting. “Save the bickering for later. And Kageyama…kun, you’re coming with me.”

She grabbed ahold of his arm before he could argue, dragging him up the stairs the way they’d come from before.

“I expect a detailed report once we get back,” she stated just before she disappeared from view, stopping in the hall with the metal doors afterwards. Even if some of the others were going to come after them, they’d still get more privacy searching here than downstairs.

A moment later, she heard someone bolting up the stairs, glancing over just in time to see Nakajima sprint back into the room they’d dragged him out from. Well… that was about what she expected from him anyway.

Knowing that Hayama would soon be back to convince him to come out again - or at least having suspicions of it -, Yokoyama picked another door at random, Kageyama following her obediently to her relief.

“Don’t think I’m letting you off the hook,” she sent him a sharp glance over her shoulder. “I’d still like for you to explain what you know… I just dislike getting violent.”

“Yeah… thought so,” Kageyama sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. At least he wasn’t _that_ oblivious. “It’s not like I don’t wanna tell you guys… There’s just a pretty good chance you might not believe me or trust me after that.”

_It’s not as if I trust you right now._

Still, at least he wasn’t going to deny it - that was already a step forward.

“You’ll only make yourself more suspicious by keeping quiet,” Yokoyama responded, opening the next door she came across to peek inside a relatively small infirmary. Walking inside, she took note of the filled cabinets and the hospital bed in the corner - they should remember to bring someone here if they get injured. With Akiyama, that wasn’t too unimaginable…

“That’s… fair.”

“Besides, I don’t know about the others, but I’m not one to immediately jump to conclusions,” she continued, now attempting to scan the contents of the shelves on her tiptoes. “I won’t just trust you blindly, but I won’t assume the worst, this much, I can promise. It’s part of my job not to ignore facts, after all.”

“Oh, you’re an attorney, right?” Kageyama’s eyes lit up, after which Yokoyama slowly nodded. Well, not yet, but… “Thought so. I was just making sure.”

“…You’re so weird.”

He pushed one of the stools over to her, and she rolled her eyes subtly before she stepped up on it.

“I trust you, though, I think,” he leisurely strolled over to the other side of the room to take a look around himself for the time being. “I just don’t really think telling the others would be a good idea.”

“Just tell me, then,” Yokoyama pursed her lips; maybe it was selfish, but it made sense. She was sick of being confused about everything, and she was sure she’d be the most useful person when it came to getting everyone out of this situation, conceited as that sounded. Most of the other guys here were a mess, so the thought felt pretty natural.

Kageyama seemed to mull over that for a bit.

“Guess that makes sense… Dunno how much of it you’ll believe, though.”

“Just get to it,” Yokoyama hopped back onto the ground, dusting off her hands. Even if it was going to be an unbelievable story, it was far, far better than being left in the dark completely. Besides, though she wasn’t going to let her guard down, Kageyama had demonstrated an extremely poor ability to lie so far.

Kageyama gave her a sort of awkward smile before he got to talking.

* * *

 

He hadn’t been lying when he said the story would be hard to believe - Yokoyama did want to just discard it right away, in fact, despite what she’d said earlier. She knew doing such a thing so fast would go against the point she was trying to make earlier, but the rational side of her was so, so reluctant to even consider that the boy was being honest with her.

If they really were in some kind of virtual world, would they even be able to find an exit…? Won’t that mean they’re just stuck here until they’re let out? More than that, even if he _said_ that she shouldn’t be able to remember any of what happened the previous times, would something like that really be possible…? It did line up with the strange way he was acting, including why he was acting like he knew the others _differently_ than the way they were all acting, but…

No, she had to find a way to test this for herself. There had to be a way to verify it, surely. If she could just do that, maybe she could actually have a bit more faith in Kageyama too…

“But if that’s the case, then why would they send you back here?” she bit her lip, tone increasingly irritated - albeit not quite at her conversation partner. “It’d be way too dangerous, wouldn’t it?”

Still, Kageyama remained patient.

“Well, yeah, but…” he leaned against the wall of the hallway they happened to stop in this time around, fixing his hair over and over. “The thing is, if the A.I. has this much control even without someone to give it commands, there’s pretty much nothing we can do about it… so I’m just here for damage control.”

_You don’t seem to be doing too great of a job at it._

Then again, some of these people did seem rather difficult to keep in line.

“We tried to restart it from the outside, but no matter what we did, it always ended like this,” Kageyama let out a sigh. “For now, this is the best option we have.”

“…But… why don’t our memories line up, then? If you’re here too, then you should only know as much as we do…”

“Ah… I dunno why you guys ended up like that,” he tilted his head, “but I entered differently, so we had at least some freedom in terms of what to allow with my avatar. So… for now, my memories are staying.”

Yokoyama wanted to ask more, so much more, but not only was she slightly below average when it came to understanding the workings of technology, Kageyama didn’t seem like an expert either, so she doubted she could get a satisfying answer anytime soon unless she turned to someone else.

“…In any case, _if_ what you’re saying is true, that would mean Izumi-kun can’t be trusted,” Yokoyama rubbed her chin slowly; she wasn’t quite ready to dive headfirst into the theory, but it wasn’t as if she was _against_ it either. She already knew the business with Izumi and Fujinomiya was pretty damn shady, and the former did seem _slightly_ hysterical the last time she saw him…

Well, she wasn’t going to do anything drastic either way, and this was pretty much the best explanation she’d received so far.

“I’ll believe you for now,” she started, pausing briefly to lock eyes with him, “but not unconditionally. You’re either on my side, which makes you incredibly useful, or you’re against me, which means I’ll have to keep an eye on you. Either way, I want you to keep me company for the time being.”

She had to talk to Izumi as soon as possible; maybe taking Kageyama along would help in the process somehow.

“That’s fine,” he agreed to it after only a short moment of hesitation, albeit kind of looking like he had something more to say. Yokoyama raised a brow, and he continued. “Could I talk to Aragaki later…? One-on-one, I mean… I kinda have something I’d like to ask her.”

Considering he knew next to nothing about what had happened before they ended up in this mess, Yokoyama could only guess that it was something to do with the other game he’d told her about. He hadn’t said any specifics - of course he wouldn’t; she could tell he didn’t want to make her unnecessarily suspicious of anyone he didn’t think deserved it -, but Yokoyama could deduce this much on her own.

“…Okay,” she nodded; she’d have to be stupid not to eavesdrop. Private conversations or not, she wasn’t going to let potential information slip from her hands. “But try to keep a low profile next time. You’re already really damn suspicious, and I might not be able to get you out of trouble every single time. I’ll smack you over the head to remove your pesky memories if I have to, but I expect you to try a little harder.”

“I know that,” Kageyama chuckled, to Yokoyama’s mild annoyance; this wasn’t a funny matter at all. Was he really the best person they had to send in here…? “Oh, also, could you fill me in later? About the whole project or whatever… I only really know about stuff we could find in documents.”

Yokoyama gave him a halfhearted nod, making a mental note to try to summarize the information as briefly as possible; for now, they really had to return to the others before they grew suspicious or something. They’d been gone long enough.

She just didn’t want to take any chances is all… plus she had to talk to Izumi as well.

Dragging Kageyama along, by the time she returned to the lounge for the umpteenth time, there were considerably less people around than before. Nakajima and Hayama were both gone - Yokoyama might’ve felt bad for the girl if she hadn’t been the one to insist so much on convincing Nakajima to come outside -, and the last time Yokoyama saw Akiyama and Sakurauchi, the latter had dragged the much taller boy off to investigate somewhere else before he could start hitting people again. Aragaki, Yokoyama had no idea about, but she might’ve been hiding in one of the bedrooms like Nakajima, which left only Izumi, Natsume, Takahashi and Komatsu around.

Takahashi was sitting in one of the corners, staring off into the air absentmindedly, Komatsu almost a perfect mirror on him on the other side - Yokoyama had the strangest urge to start nudging them both to work, but she’d learned not to bother with unmotivated people like this after a while. At least Takahashi would be good for diffusing Akiyama, if nothing else.

Natsume was… God knows what he was doing. Standing right below one of the screens, he seemed to be staring up at it with a completely blank expression, tapping his chin in a slow rhythm, muttering under his breath in a voice so quiet Yokoyama would’ve had to get much closer to catch anything. Was he still trying to figure out what the cat from before had been exactly? Possibly.

In any case, Izumi was very much present, so Yokoyama took it upon herself to approach him with Kageyama following closely behind, taking his hand by the wrist before he could argue.

“We need to talk,” was all she said before she proceeded to tug him along - to her relief, it seemed like Izumi had calmed down after earlier, now back to his usual attitude of relative obedience. The small storage room in the back would’ve been the least likely place where they’d be disturbed - in fact, she doubted anyone else would even fit inside after all 3 of them -, so she ushered them inside promptly as soon as she opened the door, making sure to close it behind them for privacy’s sake.

Kageyama only seemed a _bit_ uncomfortable, for better or for worse, but he also wasn’t the most emotional or dramatic person around, so Yokoyama wouldn’t be able to read him if she tried. Perhaps he was just going to keep it all to himself until he’d be forced to spill.

“What would you like, Yokoyama-san…? I didn’t think it’d be necessary to surround me like this, but…” Izumi let out an awkward laugh, shifting his weight from one foot to another. Yokoyama glanced at Kageyama on the side before she cleared her throat.

She wasn’t going to get an honest answer, if Kageyama wasn’t lying - but she’d already seen how erratic Izumi tended to act whenever he was faced with a threat, so perhaps if she could just achieve that effect somehow…

Lifting her hands, she proceeded to slam them into the wall on both sides of the boy’s face in an attempt to intimidate him.

“You’re going to tell me where we are and what is happening right now,” she stated firmly, albeit keeping her voice relatively low in case anyone outside was walking nearby.

She turned her head back towards Kageyama with a deep scowl as soon as she heard him snicker under his breath.

“Do you have a problem?”

“I don’t think you look as scary as you want to like that… Yokoyama…” he turned his head away to at least let her keep some of her dignity, presumably, as his shoulders shook a little from held back laughter, and tempted as Yokoyama was to kick him in the shin or something, she took a deep breath to calm herself down so she could focus on the more important issue at hand.

She could deal with this idiot later.

“I’ve already told you I don’t know, though, haven’t I?” Izumi stared back at her in a perfectly composed manner, just as Kageyama had foretold. She grinded her teeth; it was true that she appeared to be the shortest person around for the time being, but Izumi wasn’t even _that_ tall - in fact, the height difference only made up about half a head. So what, that wasn’t good enough?

“Yes, you sure said that earlier, but that’s not what I want from you,” she let go of the wall with only a slight tinge of red, defiantly lifting her chin afterwards. “You should already know what’s going on without a doubt.”

Although Kageyama hadn’t said it straight out, there _was_ one thing Yokoyama could guess on her own. If Izumi was here, but Fujinomiya wasn’t, that could only mean one thing.

“Fujinomiya-san betrayed you, didn’t she?”

That was all it took - Izumi’s expression darkened as he grabbed her by the collar, lifting her into the air just enough for her to choke slightly, but before he could do anything else, Kageyama already tore his hands off of her, pinning him against the wall. Yokoyama found herself more startled by Kageyama’s actions rather than Izumi’s - he really didn’t seem assertive enough after knowing him for this long -, though she did rub her neck with a wince as she coughed a few times.

To be fair, that could’ve gone a lot worse.

“Oh, what do _you_ know? As if- As if it’s any of your business what sort of stupid prank she pulls behind my ba-“

“Calm down, dude,” Kageyama cut off his ranting prematurely, attempting to keep him still despite his flailing and kicking around. “You’re stuck here with all of us, so you’re gonna have to cooperate if you wanna get out. You prolly know at least _one_ way out, right?”

Izumi’s response was practically a hiss.

“No, I _don’t_! Let go of me, or else…!”

“I already know we’ll be fine if we just wait out the timer, but _surely_ , there must be something else we can do to at least keep everyone safe until then,” Kageyama persisted, although having an increasingly difficult time keeping his hold on him. “You _must_ know how to disable the A.I., I mean-“

Receiving a knee to the crotch, his voice got caught in his throat before he unceremoniously dropped to his knees, curling up with muttered curses - Izumi clicked his tongue as he rubbed his now free wrists, shoving Yokoyama out of the way and slamming the door open as he stormed outside. The girl’s usual frown remained ever so present as she crouched down next to Kageyama.

“Are you okay there…?”

“’m good…” Kageyama managed, looking like he very much would’ve appreciated a pain reliever right about now. Yokoyama let out a frustrated sigh as she combed her fingers through her hair - on one hand, Izumi’s outburst was definitely an indication that Kageyama may have been telling the truth after all, but on the other hand, she wasn’t sure if they could even get through to him. They couldn’t just ask _nicely_ \- he might just stab them in the back if they gave him too much freedom.

She lifted her head just in time to get a good look at Natsume standing right beside the doorway, staring inside with an unreadable expression, as always - his eyes seemed to twinkle with curiosity behind his glasses, though, and Yokoyama felt her heart sink. She couldn’t quite put a finger on why, but she just _knew_ this wasn’t a good sign.

“Do you need something, Natsume-kun?”

“Not at all. I was merely passing by,” he bowed his head politely, soon stepping closer to offer a hand for her with a strangely empty smile. “Do be careful; confrontations so violent are hardly wise.”

Yokoyama took his hand after a short pause, letting him help her to his feet - it was only a symbol of politeness for him, that much, she could tell, and she really didn’t think getting on his bad side would be a good idea. She was feeling way too much on edge after everything that’d happened so far.

“Is Kageyama-kun alright, if I may inquire?” Natsume’s gaze shifted to said boy on the floor, and Yokoyama gave him a small nudge with the head of her boot. Kageyama only replied with a small whine.

“I’m sure he’ll be just fine in a moment,” Yokoyama turned back to Natsume, holding her hands out to gesture for him to leave. “Thank you for the concern, but I’d prefer if you could search another room.”

Natsume didn’t seem _too_ opposed to that, although he did seem to stare at Kageyama for an awfully long time before he finally excused himself to leave.

They had to find a way to get Izumi to be willing to work together with them - that was definitely a priority. Aside from that… she supposed they had to start to at least attempt to keep tabs on everyone. Who knows what might happen if someone snapped all of a sudden…

Letting out a groan, she crossed her arms as she waited for Kageyama to stand back up again, tapping her feet impatiently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> nyehhh ill probably take my time with updating since i have other things im doing on the side too


	4. Chapter 1, Daily Life - Guilt

The rest of the day went about as well as Yokoyama had expected it to - though, on the bright side, it _could_ have been a lot worse. The cat - or Mononeko, as he’d called himself - hadn’t appeared again so far, though they also had a hard time finding a way to consult with Izumi once again, as they would’ve preferred not to get the rest of the group involved.

At least they’d managed to investigate the area fully, for the most part. It was actually rather spacious, it just so happened that the number of rooms crammed together made it a lot more cramped - the lounge area contained a souvenir shop packed with all sorts of miscellaneous items, and a shared storage with the kitchen, filled with boxes taped shut. Having found a bunch of unused plates in one of them, Yokoyama had concluded they weren’t worth investigating until they had the time.

The only baths seemed to be in the lounge as well - one for the boys, another for the girls, each with its own changing room. The people who weren’t all that concerned with the current situation - Komatsu and Natsume, namely - had already gone inside to get themselves cleaned, Yokoyama shaking her head in disbelief at their easygoing attitudes.

Once they’d gone upstairs again, they soon discovered what the rules meant about ‘planes’ as well - it seemed like behind each metal door was a different airplane, though the limited field of vision the windows had provided made it rather hard to make them out fully. Based on the phrasing of that particular rule, they were to probably take off at the start of every ‘nighttime’, then return to their previous position in the morning. In that case, they wouldn’t have to worry about anyone crossing a line at night at the very least… considering they were all in pairs - or on their own, in Izumi’s case.

Aside from that, each plane appeared to serve a certain function. The one Yokoyama and Kageyama had woken up in contained a library and an arcade of some kind, but there was also one with a gym and a small pool, one with a bar and a café, one with a music room and a tiny movie theater, as well as another one with an infirmary and what appeared to be… a greenhouse? Yokoyama might’ve questioned that more, had Kageyama not reminded her about where they were right now.

The others were in… _varying_ conditions. Akiyama was soon found indulging himself at the bar, seemingly having the time of his life carrying on a loud conversation with a lampshade, swinging around a bottle, half-emptied. Takahashi was still in a zombie-like state, albeit in a different position this time around, having taken a seat on one of the sofas, while Hayama finally managed to convince Nakajima to let her inside, only for him to lock himself into what Yokoyama recalled as the pool. Hopefully he wasn’t going to drown himself in there.

Sakurauchi, clearly not knowing what to do with herself, soon excused herself to reluctantly take a shower - though Hayama also ended up coming with, after repeatedly apologising and calling herself filthy several times. Yokoyama made a point to ignore the latter completely.

Izumi had received treatment from Natsume earlier - whether it was of his own volition or against his will, Yokoyama didn’t get an opportunity to discover -, and had taken up residence in the lounge for now from the looks of it, unfortunately.

The only one left was Aragaki, who also happened to be the girl Kageyama was currently meeting with in the library, Yokoyama having hid behind one of the shelves earlier. Thanks to her rather petite size, she could comfortably fit herself into a particularly narrow gap, leaving her completely shrouded in the dark shadow the shelves were casting - she definitely wasn’t complaining.

She had more reason to trust Kageyama than before, but even so, she couldn’t bring herself to just leave this be.

Kageyama stood in his usual pose - hands in pockets, weight on one feet -, but there was a sort of tense undertone to his posture that Yokoyama could _just barely_ see hints of, but couldn’t quite put a finger on. Even his voice felt like an awkward imitation of the way he’d addressed _her_.

“…What do you want?” Aragaki stood with her arms crossed; she didn’t seem even remotely worried, as though she was aware she could twist the boy into a pretzel if he so much as attempted to graze her. Her eyes were narrowed with slight suspicion, but not enough to make her appear upset; in fact, she seemed to carry a resigned sort of aura, like she was already prepared for all sorts of misfortune to just fall from the sky.

“Oh, I was just… hoping we could have a quick chat. Yeah,” Kageyama cleared his throat, voice sort of raspy at the start. “This is gonna sound super weird, but… what do you remember about me?”

Yokoyama clicked her tongue; if Kageyama blew this, she didn’t want to be the one to have to fish him out of trouble.

“If this is your way of making a move, I’m not very impressed,” Aragaki pursed her lips, and Kageyama let out a nervous chuckle.

“Nah, it’s not like that at all. That’s… good enough of an answer, though.”

He lifted one of his hands to place it on the back of his head, slowly brushing past his hair.

“I’m sorry.”

The apology felt heavy, somehow, even though Yokoyama was sure he was only referring to asking such a strange question.

The two stood around in silence for a little while, Aragaki scanning Kageyama’s face for presumably a sign to help her better understand what he was going on about, giving up with a small sigh once she’d realised she wasn’t going to be obtaining such a thing so easily. She shook her head, letting her arms drop to her sides.

“Whatever; it’s not as if we’re short on time here.”

She just about took a step towards the exit when Kageyama spoke up again.

“Aragaki-“ he bit the sentence in half, but she’d already stopped, and he seemed to cave under the expectant stare, resuming it anyway. “I’ll figure something out, so just be careful until then, ‘kay?”

Aragaki’s reply was a simple nod, and nothing else.

Even now, Yokoyama didn’t regret anything.

* * *

 

Despite everything, the day still passed by somehow - despite everything, the sun was setting like it always did, coating everything with a faint, orange glow, making the atmosphere appear a lot more peaceful than how Yokoyama felt about it. She’d taken a bath before - her clothes had stuck to her with sweat from stress and adrenaline, but fortunately each bedroom was filled with plenty of clean clothes for everyone to change into -, but regardless of that, she didn’t want to let herself get too comfortable.

Sitting in the kitchen, slowly munching away at the meal she’d prepared for herself earlier, her only company was still Kageyama - the others were scattered around, doing god knows what at this point. At the very least, she was hoping nobody would do anything rash so soon - shouldn’t they appoint a leader of some kind, just in case…? Izumi _could_ have sufficed before, but…

Then again, she was sure the majority of the others wouldn’t care. How troublesome…

Just as she swallowed another bite, the monitor in the room turned on, causing her to almost choke on the food.

“Hi again, I hope everyone’s been well since the last time we talked!” Mononeko’s voice echoed throughout the space, loud enough for Yokoyama to wince. “I really don’t wanna have to yell at you all one by one, though, so don’t bother asking me questions right now. We have a much more important matter to tend to anyway!”

Producing a white envelope, he waved it around in the air for a bit.

“Our first motive is here! I know you all must’ve been looking forward to it. You wanna know it already, don’t you, don’t you?”

Yokoyama opened her mouth for a reflexive retort, almost smacking Kageyama over the head when he shushed her to stop her from interrupting - Mononeko did imply he’d ignore anyone who’d try to cut him off, but that didn’t make it any easier for her to hold back from adding her two cents. She bit down on her lip for now, holding her commentary in.

Ripping the envelope open, Mononeko unfolded the paper inside of it, clearing his throat.

“Looks like you guys are _reeeeaally_ lucky today… We have a special bonus for whoever strikes first, just this once! If you’re in the mood to off someone, do it quick, do it now, because if you’re the first one to do so, you’ll get to take someone else with you!” he announced, albeit quickly resuming soon after. “Well, that is if you can avoid being found out.”

“There it is…” Kageyama remarked quietly, eyes glued to the screen before he turned to Yokoyama. "You wouldn’t go for that, right…?”

“Obviously not, moron,” she snapped briefly, somewhat offended by the accusation, though quickly gathering her composure as soon as the words slipped out. “I have morals and principles. I wouldn’t throw them away so easily.”

She would’ve _hoped_ the others felt the same way, but she already knew such a thing was mere wishful thinking on her part, especially considering their current predicament.

Come to think of it… _No_ , she had to leave these kinds of thoughts for later. It’d be better to ask Kageyama once they could be sure only the two of them would be around as well.

Getting up from her seat suddenly, she took it upon herself to clean up the dishes for both of them despite Kageyama’s obvious confusion, making a point to ignore the cat that continued babbling on and on the entire time. Grabbing the boy’s wrist once she was done, she proceeded to drag him out into the hallway, Mononeko disappearing just as she stepped out, and just as she bumped into someone else.

Lifting her head, she found herself face-to-face - or chest-to-face, rather - with a seemingly spaced-out Takahashi, who might’ve simply walked over her had she not stumbled backwards with a tiny yelp as soon as they collided. Staring blankly at her at first, realisation settled on his features a moment later, eyes widening slightly.

“Oh… Excuse me, Yokoyama-san. I didn’t see you there.”

She wanted to at least hold onto whatever tiny dignity she had left.

“Takahashi,” Kageyama leaned over the girl nonchalantly, Yokoyama slapping the arm he’d hooked around her shoulder away, “you heard the announcement just now, right?”

“The announcement…?” Takahashi repeated the phrase, giving a curt nod soon. “Most of it, why?”

Stepping past Yokoyama, Kageyama placed his hands on the much taller boy’s shoulders.

“I have a favor to ask of you. It’s something only you can do, and it’s _really_ important.”

Yokoyama could’ve sworn she saw a hint of hope flash in his eyes before they returned to their regular, dead fish-like appearance.

“I don’t mind, but… are you sure I’m the one you should be asking? I’m not smart at all.”

“It’s not about being smart, don’t worry,” Kageyama waved off his concerns, Yokoyama taking note of the fact that he didn’t even deny the self-deprecating remark for a second. “You’re pretty much the strongest person here, yeah? So you’re our best bet for security.”

That kind of phrasing gave Yokoyama just enough of an idea about what he was going to request of Takahashi.

“If Takahashi-kun is the one who leaves last before nighttime each time, we should be okay for the night,” she tapped her chin, nodding to herself afterwards. It might’ve been overkill, but she wasn’t going to let that bother her.

“You get it,” Kageyama grinned, letting go of Takahashi soon after. “It’s smart, yeah?”

“It’s _alright_.”

Takahashi didn’t seem like the kind of guy who’d be hard to convince; he didn’t seem all that sure about the idea, but he ended up agreeing to it with only minimal reluctance, the other two thanking him in unison as soon as he did. At least this was _progress_ of some kind.

On the other hand, this did provide another obstacle - they wouldn’t be able to stay the night in the lounge with Izumi. Not that it was the best idea to begin with - Yokoyama was sure she wouldn’t be getting _any_ sleep if she had to do so in the same room as that guy -, but it did decrease the chance of them being able to catch him alone even more.

Well, if she was desperate enough, she was sure she could ask Akiyama to just drag him over.

Holding onto Kageyama all the way through, as though worried that he might slip away on his own, Yokoyama explored the entire area one more time to check up on what everyone was doing - she would’ve brought up whether or not they should reorganize the pairs, but it didn’t seem like she’d be getting an opportunity to do so. Komatsu and Takahashi were fine with each other, _Yokoyama_ wasn’t going to let Kageyama room with someone else, Akiyama was still too drunk off his ass to care, Aragaki had ditched Natsume to share a room with Hayama instead - since Nakajima was still not willing to share one with someone himself -, and out of Natsume or Akiyama, though Sakurauchi had quite a bit of trouble choosing the less _terrible_ option, she ended up with the latter.

That left Natsume on his own, and Izumi in the lounge, as he wasn’t willing to share a space with anyone if he could help it.

Lying in bed hours later, Yokoyama massaged her scalp as she waited for Kageyama to arrive, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to sleep unless she got rid of at least _some_ of her overwhelming amount of thoughts. She hadn’t felt like this since the last time she had to study for an exam, honestly, and the sensation hadn’t gotten any more pleasant since then.

Lifting her head suddenly at the sound of a door opening, her shoulders slunk with relief once she saw him enter.

“Hey,” he greeted her in his usual, easygoing manner, the girl returning it with a small wave. Would _now_ be the ideal time to talk…? More than likely; he didn’t seem like the type to sleep early anyway.

She cleared her throat.

“How was Takahashi-kun?”

“Ah, I told him to wait until the last sec. Got him a watch from the school store to make sure,” Kageyama threw himself onto the other bed, stretching out with a content sigh. “Should be fine for now, prolly.”

“Probably…” Yokoyama echoed the phrase, musing over it silently for a moment. “…You said you wanted me to tell you about the project, right?”

“Yeah, that’d be good.”

“Can I ask you something before that?”

Her hands squeezed the blanket as she was briefly overcome with the same discomfort she felt the first time the question popped into her mind; if Kageyama noticed anything, he was willing to disregard it to provide her with an answer, which she very much appreciated.

“Shoot me.”

Her gaze rested on her hands in her lap.

“If I’m here, that means I died in the previous game… right? You’ve confirmed that much…” she managed to blurt it out with only a bit of difficulty, still having some trouble wrapping her brain around the concept. It really wasn’t an everyday experience, after all… “I want to know about that.”

A short silence fell upon them both before she quickly shook her head, expanding on it just a little more.

“It’s okay if you don’t give me any names. What I want to know is more about the ‘how’ than the ‘who’…”

Even if she would’ve wanted to hold a grudge, there wouldn’t have been any point - if Kageyama’s testimony was to be trusted, not only would the other person involved not remember anything, they would’ve also been entirely different. Even if it was just a couple of years of a difference, a person could change a lot in that amount of time…

Kageyama stayed quiet for much longer than necessary, seemingly having trouble addressing the issue before he finally opened his mouth.

“It was more of an accident than anything.”

“An accident…?”

“Yeah. You fell, and that was that,” he rolled over onto his other side, and no matter how much Yokoyama narrowed her eyes, his back didn’t give her any hints about what he might’ve been feeling right now. Then again, he _was_ keeping some details a secret; maybe he just felt guilty about that.

If there _was_ more to it, he made it clear she wasn’t going to get it out of him without getting violent by turning away, and she’d already classified him as an ally of some sort, so she wasn’t going to cross that line now.

Maybe she could ask him again once all of this was over.

“…Alright, that’s all I wanted to know,” she lay down once again, staring at the ceiling, trying her best not to dwell on it too much _for now_. She supposed that was the least she could do in exchange for him being so cooperative so far. “About the project, then… I suppose…”

There wasn’t _that_ much she could tell him that he didn’t already know - or nothing important as far as she was aware, at least. She was delivered the application form just like everyone else, and she ended up giving it a shot on a whim, only taking it so-so seriously. Regardless of whether or not it’d give her what she was looking for, she had to at least investigate it for the sake of everyone else.

Well, more than that… she was just desperate for any kind of assistance, really. She wasn’t willing to dirty her hands, but hopefully it wouldn’t come to that…

For a moment, just for a moment, as she talked, she felt a strange impulse to open up to the boy; she hadn’t shared this with anybody, and he seemed eager to listen to anything she had to say… but the thought vanished almost as fast as it appeared, and she forcefully grounded herself in reality once again. She wasn’t going to rely on a stranger so much - and even if she would’ve wanted to, she didn’t feel comfortable knowing that someone else might have been listening with the cameras and all.

She was going to be just fine on her own.

What Kageyama was the most curious about appeared to be everyone else; it made sense, if he remembered them as different kinds of people. Yokoyama was regretting not having paid more attention to the others more and more, but she couldn’t go back into the past to change that, so she let the faint feelings of embarrassment fade alongside her alertness.

As far as she could remember, they were all brought to the island separately, some having been there much longer than others. Even back then, how little they were told was always infuriating, but she’d played along for the sake of having more freedom to investigate and search the place - it was incredibly frustrating to come up with almost nothing even with that, though, so she supposed she might not have been able to focus that much on the actual _people_ even if she’d tried.

Still, she tried her best to at least give vague descriptions. Kageyama listened intently, not looking sleepy in the slightest, as though this was the most interesting thing he’d heard so far today. Even when the announcement for nighttime came, he paid no attention to it whatsoever - only Yokoyama’s voice faltered when she felt the room shift slowly as well, presumably as they were about to take off for the night.

It wasn’t as if she _hadn’t_ been on a plane before - she’d flown many times before, in fact -, but it was still strange to be actually sleeping in one.

“Doesn’t it bother you…?”

“What does-?” Kageyama gave her a blank look, and she gestured to their surroundings in a halfhearted manner.

“Flying, I guess…”

He spent quite a while thinking about it before attempting to shrug his shoulders while still lying on his side.

“Nah, not really. I’ve seen weirder stuff.”

_Of course you have…_

Pulling the blanket over herself all the way to her chin, she let out a small huff.

“You’ll help me catch Izumi-kun tomorrow, right?”

“’Course.”

Well, that was good enough, coming from him.

Closing her eyes, Yokoyama felt herself sink deeper and deeper into the sheets as sleepiness overtook her, and she curled up instinctively, getting as comfortable as she possibly could right now. She’d just have to think about everything else in the morning.

The night passed by, and Yokoyama Hiromi actually managed to get a decent amount of sleep for once.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i officially have a proper summary now to calculate how much i have left, so thats pretty cool. no idea how many ao3 chapters itll take, but the story should be around 4 major chapters (excluding intermissions and the prologue/epilogue), although a 5th chapter *is* possible depending on how i end up splitting things up.
> 
> anyway... although my format is still far from perfect, and i already have quite a few things id like to do differently for other kg fics in the future, i have quite a few ideas for this one! i added major chapters into the chapter titles to make it easier to navigate (and to keep it a little closer to the traditional dr format), and id also like to switch to pixel art as far as the murders/executions are concerned (partially because my own art doesnt reach my own standards, and partially because i just want to experiment with the idea).
> 
> on that note, it should be quite obvious already at this point, but this fic in particular will be very special; though i already try to put my own spin on dr formulas, itll be especially apparent in this one, and i *might* even end up diverging from the usual route of Giant Final Trial near the end towards a more DR-IF-esque plot, so heres a heads up if youre not really into that. my third kg fic will be set in an entirely different universe from this one with no relation whatsoever, and will be much more similar to a proper fanganronpa, so if thats more your cup of tea, feel free to skip this one to give that one a go instead once i get to it (though you can still give this one a shot since ill still be trying my best to make it enjoyable).
> 
> excuse the tiny novel i just wrote out, but i had a *lot* to say this time around


	5. Chapter 1, Daily Life - In the blink of an eye

It was the morning announcement that had woken Yokoyama up - she sat up in bed, so suddenly that she almost fell right onto the floor in the process -, and it took her quite a few seconds to fully recall where she was, along with everything else that had happened. Kageyama appeared to be quite the deep sleeper; he only rolled onto his other side even with all the noise going on, limbs spread out in every conceivable direction.

Yokoyama grumbled under her breath as she walked over to shake him awake, this time not having quite as much difficulty as the first time she’d tried to rouse him from his sleep here. Eyes only opened partially, he pushed himself into a sitting position with such sluggishness Yokoyama wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d fallen right back asleep as soon as she took her eyes off him.

“Let’s go make sure everyone else is still breathing,” she nudged him repeatedly, determined not to let him laze around just yet. “Come on.”

Kageyama mumbled something that sounded suspiciously similar to ‘5 more minutes’, and Yokoyama narrowed her eyes briefly before she unceremoniously yanked the blanket off him, grabbing onto his shirt to pull him to his feet. She wasn’t quite strong enough to pull it off - or rather, move him at all -, but it seemed to have gotten the point across, at the very least, as he begrudgingly climbed out of bed with the most chaotic bedhead Yokoyama had ever seen a person sport.

Well, she wouldn’t have scolded him even if he wasn’t going to fix his appearance - the important part was that she got him to move for now.

Throwing her hair back over her shoulder, she left the room by herself for now, wanting to start the day with her usual morning routine.

Half an hour later she was standing in the kitchen, hair and clothes both immaculate despite the possible non-necessity of her efforts - she wasn’t going to _not_ take care of herself, even if she was surrounded by a bunch of almost-strangers. She just wasn’t one to compromise on her principles.

She would’ve been ready to prepare food for herself as well, had she not been met with a rather strange sight upon taking a few more steps inside.

Akiyama was wearing an apron over his hastily thrown on outfit, knife in hand, in the middle of chopping up some vegetables. While the relatively prominent circles under his eyes let Yokoyama know he may or may not have been suffering from a not too pleasant hangover after the previous day, he actually appeared calmer than before - still wearing somewhat of a scowl, but that may have also been his relaxed face to begin with.

Sakurauchi was seated at the table with Hayama and Aragaki, empty plates and glasses before them, and she gave Yokoyama a halfhearted wave when she noticed her, the girl returning it with a puzzled frown.

Akiyama didn’t even lift his gaze as he greeted her.

“Grab a plate and sit down.”

Yokoyama felt a tiny nerve inside of her snap at his mannerisms, but she didn’t let herself lose her temper so early in the day.

“He said he didn’t want anyone to get in the way while he was cooking,” Sakurauchi provided an explanation helpfully as Yokoyama took a seat, fiddling with her hair sheepishly. “So now he’s just making breakfast for everyone.”

“For everyone who bothers to come,” Akiyama corrected her sharply, movements not faltering for even a second. “I’m not some fuckin’ maid service, got it? If you miss breakfast, you’re making your own meal.”

That _was_ what Yokoyama was going to do in the first place.

“Where’s Kageyama?” Aragaki inquired, clearly trying to seem disinterested despite small hints of curiosity managing to seep through her deadpan expression. She must’ve spent quite a while thinking about what he told her yesterday.

Yokoyama wondered if Kageyama would feel flattered about such a thing, or if he’d just take it at face value. Maybe the latter, with how scatterbrained the boy seemed to be.

“Either back asleep, or getting ready, I assume,” she replied, leaning on one of her hands in the meantime.

_If he arrives too late, it’ll be his own fault._

For a moment, Aragaki seemed as though she had more to say, but she averted her gaze after a short pause, leaning back in her seat with crossed arms.

“I see.”

Whether she was worried or simply wanted to talk to him more remained a mystery, but Yokoyama pried no further.

Nakajima didn’t seem like he was going to be coming anytime soon, according to Hayama, at least, and Izumi only poked his head in once before he muttered something about not being hungry and ran off, but Natsume and Kageyama did arrive shortly, albeit separately. The only missing ones were now Komatsu and Takahashi - Yokoyama would’ve offered to go fetch them on her own, but Akiyama looked like he was pretty closed to being finished, and the delicious smell wafting towards her was far, far too hard to resist, so she remained sitting.

Akiyama instructed everyone sternly not to move as he served the food himself - because he didn’t want them breaking the dishes or spilling anything, according to him -, and Yokoyama dug in without hesitation as soon as her plate was filled, immediately feeling as though the day just got a hundred times better as soon as she took her first bite.

As she indulged to her heart’s content, she noticed 2 things in particular. Aragaki seemed to be staring at Kageyama in such an intense manner, she may as well have been drilling a hole straight to his brain to take a peek inside, while Kageyama, on the other hand, was focusing entirely on his meal, but with a posture so uncharacteristically rigid Yokoyama was certain he was fully aware of the intense gaze following his every move.

Then again, that kind of interaction was very much what she’d expected.

She wondered if there was a way for her to intervene without giving away the fact that she’d intruded upon their privacy. Perhaps not yet…

In any case, she had to put the thought aside for now - she had to check up on Takahashi and Komatsu, as well as Nakajima, before she could start playing matchmaker between anybody.

* * *

 

Takahashi had breakfast - much later than the others, admittedly, but at least he bothered to do so at all. Komatsu, on the other hand, appeared to be perfectly content with curling up in her bed like some kind of overgrown cat, clinging to her pillow tightly. Perhaps she should’ve just left her be - she definitely wanted to -, but something about her attitude made Yokoyama feel like it might be worth a shot to get her to be motivated.

Or… that was what part of her wanted to believe.

“I already ate yesterday, ‘s fine…” Komatsu mumbled, nuzzling her head deeper into her pillow. “I’ll grab something later, lemme rest…”

Kageyama leaned over Yokoyama’s shoulder.

“Don’t you want some tea or something at least? You said your head hurts, yeah?”

“Tea’s not gonna help with that, Kageyama-tan,” Komatsu lifted a hand lazily to wave it in the air. “I feel like my insides have been turned inside out…”

“If you’re sick, then you should just take some medicine for it,” Yokoyama placed her hands on her hips, tilting her head sharply. Komatsu seemed to pause for a moment, dropping her hand back down before lifting her head slightly to glance at her with half-lidded eyes.

“I’d rather not. I don’t buy that kinda stuff,” she frowned, Yokoyama raising a brow in return.

“What…?”

“The industry’s got you wrapped around its finger if you really think they cure anything, Yokoyama-tan,” came a long, drawn-out hum. “They give you things that make your head spin and see things that aren’t there. Y’all would be better off picking flowers.”

Kageyama placed a hand on Yokoyama’s shoulder just in time before she could go on a rant.

“Just leave her be for now,” he flashed a smile in an attempt to get her to back off, turning to Komatsu afterwards. “I’ll ask Takahashi to bring you some tea later anyway, ‘kay?”

“Suit yourself…”

Cocooning herself in the blanket, Komatsu stopped responding after that, Yokoyama shaking her head in disbelief as she grumbled under her breath. A conspiracy nut was just what she needed… _No_ , it wasn’t polite to badmouth someone like that, even if it was in her head. She did also defend Kageyama before… in a way, so it would be best to give her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she was just rambling without thinking it over first, yes.

With that, Yokoyama let the matter rest for now.

Next up was Nakajima - though she did accompany Kageyama to talk to Takahashi before that, taking the ‘partner’ thing very, _very_ seriously. While Kageyama did seem to want to laugh it off whenever it was brought up, he wasn’t exactly resisting, so Yokoyama could drag him around as she pleased, albeit having softened up just enough by now to request that he follow her politely.

When she arrived, she was greeted by a rather shocking sight.

The door leading to the room Nakajima had been hiding in previously appeared to be quite a bit crooked - it looked like someone had attempted to rip it off its hinges, succeeding enough for it to be unable to be closed again. And in the hallway, in the furthest corner… was Nakajima, hugging his knees, seemingly trying to become one with the wall.

He flinched once he heard Yokoyama approach, Kageyama following after a moment of hesitance, but didn’t move just yet.

“Hey,” she called out, crouching down so they could be at relatively face-level - she had a feeling he might be more cooperative like that, “what happened here?”

Nakajima lifted his head briefly before averting his gaze once again.

“It… wasn’t my fault.”

“Okay…? That’s not what I asked.”

She felt as though she was a parent interrogating a child who’d just broken an expensive vase.

“N-no, but… Takahashi came by, and… and h-he broke the door w-when I didn’t want to leave…”

“Oh, so it’s your fault after all,” Yokoyama stated with a deadpan expression - it didn’t seem like her dry tone was suitable for humor, though, as Nakajima only seemed increasingly distressed by the accusation. She let her head hang with a sigh. “Would Takahashi-kun really do something like that…?”

She looked to Kageyama for guidance, but he seemed just as clueless.

“Don’t ask me,” he shook his head, “I wouldn’t know. But he’s an honest guy, so he’d probably just admit it, right?”

“I’d _hope_ so,” Yokoyama clicked her tongue before standing up straight again, turning the thought over in her head. Takahashi definitely didn’t seem like the type to lose his temper, but then again, she was no mind reader. All she could do was rule out the possibility that it had been Nakajima - erratic personality or not, he would’ve probably broken his own arm if he’d even attempted to yank the door open.

She wasn’t going to catch a break anytime soon, apparently…

Later on, she’d corner Takahashi with Kageyama in the hallway, and he’d admit to the incident in a strange, detached manner, with an apology so halfhearted neither of the two had any idea if he even meant it seriously at all, and the conversation would come to a rather sudden and awkward end with Takahashi excusing himself after a short period of silence.

* * *

 

She wanted to convince Izumi, she really did, but each time she managed to catch him by himself, he’d resort to childish outbursts and complaints one after the other before promptly storming off in the opposite direction, leaving her feeling pretty irritated and, quite honestly, wanting to strangle him just a little.

It wasn’t as if she hadn’t had to deal with uncooperative people before - in fact, it had happened much too often for her to count -, but the combination of Kageyama’s accusations with the blatantly immature attitude chipped away at her nerves bit by bit until she was practically just a ball of anger, Kageyama having to hold her back from attempting to weakly punch the boy.

Perhaps she might have been better off with researching the area more carefully instead - she wasn’t able to find any hidden rooms or anything of the sort when she conducted a thorough investigation before, but she hadn’t actually looked deeper into any of the more innocent-looking objects around them. The room she’d spent the most time in was the infirmary, taking a look at every container individually before concluding that it was all pretty much just what you’d find in a regular nurse’s office, but she still wanted to comb through the library, as well as most of the other rooms just for good measure.

If the A.I. wanted to play around, surely, it wasn’t going to just leave them in the dark completely; while Kageyama’s presence might’ve already been enough already, she wasn’t quite convinced that it’d be satisfied with that.

It was with those feelings of determination that she _kindly requested_ for Kageyama to accompany her to the library after she was done chasing Izumi around for the time being, flipping through countless pages to see if there would be any useful information hidden within one of the books.

In hindsight, she should’ve known the activity would end up being _incredibly_ draining with little results, but she wanted to persist to the best of her abilities, not really knowing what else there could have been for her to do. Kageyama took a break a lot faster - his own pace was peppered with breaks, in fact -, exhausted from all the reading, slumping over onto the table each time for a short period until Yokoyama shot him a sharp glare, instructing him to continue with her eyes.

He didn’t seem all that intimidated, but he did at least try his best to look through a decent amount - possibly to cheer her up a little.

After several hours of this, Yokoyama finally issued a break herself, head buzzing from the amount of energy she’d spent trying to focus the whole time, back starting to feel kind of sore from the hunched over posture she’d took up automatically. Stretching with a soft groan, she let her head rest atop the table for a little while.

“Maybe this much is enough for now… or for today.”

“Hey, don’t feel too down,” Kageyama gave her shoulder a couple of pats before he stood up, shoving his hands into his pockets. “I’m sure it’ll all work out in the end.”

“Nothing will work out if you say that; nothing ever does,” Yokoyama grumbled, lifting her head with a small scowl.

“Mm… Even if it doesn’t work in our favor, there’s no point in worrying about it,” Kageyama shrugged, shifting his weight from one foot to another. “I dunno about you, but I don’t like thinking about stuff I can’t change too much. We have a bunch of second chances this time too.”

The thought gave her pause; he wasn’t wrong there, indeed. In theory, _if_ he could be trusted, they could retry as many times as they wanted to. Or… he could, rather. She’d most likely just end up forgetting about everything yet again, unless some kind of miracle happened.

“…Say, Kageyama-kun… This is your first attempt, right?”

“Hm…?” he blinked, eyes wandering to the side for a moment. “Prolly, yeah.”

“’Probably’…?”

“Well, it’s not like I’d know… Hanamiya said I probably wouldn’t be able to keep my memories of this place,” he tilted his head, clearly somewhat clueless about it himself. “I’m just assuming it’s the first one. There’s no point in overthinking it.”

Perhaps… For the boy that stood in front of her, this really was his first try, so perhaps that was all that should’ve mattered. While she was most definitely the type who _wanted_ to think every situation through multiple times, his carefree attitude about it wasn’t _just_ frustrating - she found herself considering his reasoning more and more often the more time passed. It may have been time for a compromise…

Pursing her lips, she let her train of thought go on by itself discreetly, turning to Kageyama with a  different kind of question this time around.

“Won’t your friends just… take you out if it fails too many times?”

Kageyama stifled a small chuckle.

“Worried that I’ll leave you by yourself?”

“You wish,” she rolled her eyes lightly. Maybe a _little_ , but she wasn’t going to admit it just to provoke a smug response.

“Either way, you can relax,” Kageyama attempted to ruffle her hair, the girl ducking just in time with a deep frown; it was almost like she was back in high school, with a person this touchy. “I can’t just up and leave so easily. Not like I’d want to anyway…”

Placing his hands on his hips, he struck a proud pose.

“I like being a cool hero too sometimes, y’know?”

Yokoyama felt the strangest urge to smack him.

* * *

 

The rest of the day was rather uneventful - compared to the first one, that is. Mononeko didn’t appear at all apart from the announcements, which Yokoyama was incredibly thankful for, and Akiyama seemed to be refraining from breaking anyone’s neck for the time being, which was certainly a nice change of pace. Maybe he just needed some time to cool that head of his.

Natsume appeared to have secluded himself in the infirmary, leisurely looking through the books he could find in there, almost forgetting to return for dinner. Komatsu _did_ actually leave her room shortly after Takahashi had delivered her some tea as well, according to the others, though she only walked around aimlessly for the most part, people occasionally finding her having climbed up high to stare closely at the monitors and cameras.

After requesting Hayama and Aragaki to take care of Nakajima for the time being, the former nodded her head rapidly, on the verge of tears, assuming that she was being scolded for not thinking of that on her own, and while Aragaki was somewhat reluctant, she did end up answering with a small nod after a small bit of pleading on Yokoyama’s part. As long as she was away from Natsume, it seemed like she’d be willing to cooperate.

When Kageyama cheerfully asked Akiyama if he’d be making dinner again, he received a smack over his head for apparently being ‘too spoiled’, but once he’d been chided enough, Akiyama did agree to it with a ‘maybe’. In his vocabulary that was more than likely synonymous with a strong yes, just based on the way he’d been acting so far, and Kageyama appeared to be well-aware of the fact as he left the matter be, grabbing some ice from the kitchen to prevent a bruise from forming.

Dinner was… an experience. The food was very much still delicious, but Komatsu had apparently wandered into the kitchen at one point while Akiyama was still working, and declared the oven as hers, starting to bake strange, deformed desserts one after another. While everyone had refused her offerings wholeheartedly, she managed to shove one of them down Izumi’s throat - who’d been dragged along against his will by a somewhat sheepish Takahashi -, making it most certain that he’d be even more opposed to spending time with the others from now on.

Well… he probably deserved the bullying anyway, even if it was unintentional. If someone had to take Komatsu’s - somehow simultaneously lazy and enthusiastic - attempts at making peace, it may as well have been him. Yokoyama certainly didn’t have any objections.

Her fingers brushed across her neck lightly for a brief moment.

Just before night arrived, she let Kageyama mess her hair up for a change, muttering grumpily under her breath as he went off to take a bath - she’d known that she was dealing with a kid here ever since he confessed, but it had only started to set in genuinely in the last few hours or so. He was the only one here who was still only 17 deep inside, no matter how old his body was supposed to be - the knowledge made her want to be just a little more lenient every time. She wasn’t much older herself, but the gap still felt strange, as though she should be just a bit more understanding, a bit more gentle.

Still, he was far from a toddler, so she wasn’t going to treat him as one.

Lying in bed much later with the blanket pulled up to her chin, though, she was forced to reconsider the thought as Kageyama called out to her.

“Hey, Yokoyama…”

“What…?”

“Do you remember why you came here?”

Any decent person would’ve had the common sense not to ask such a private question so casually - or at all, even -, but Kageyama stared at her with innocent curiosity, not really seeing anything wrong with the question. Perhaps it was just her being so closed-off, or perhaps he already considered them close enough to be inquiring in such a manner - she would’ve preferred to think it was normal to be hesitant about topics like these, though.

“Obviously… You don’t?” she countered with a question, willfully ignoring the one left hanging in the air. She wasn’t going to tell her life story to a stranger.

“…Nope, haven’t got a clue.”

That may have been for the better… or for the worse, depending on how good he was at preparing himself for unfortunate circumstances, but he did also seem like the type who’d rely on the others without a second thought.

Yokoyama had never been very good at that - building meaningful relationships.

“Aren’t you curious about it? Or are you fine with not knowing for now?”

“I dunno, honestly…” he turned his gaze to the ceiling, studying it thoughtfully. “I mean, I’m curious, sure… but it’s kinda weird to think about. It makes me wonder if my family’s alright sometimes.”

“You told me not to worry about things that are out of my control earlier,” Yokoyama recalled, and his lips curled into a faint smile.

“Yeah, that’s part of it.”

The advice was basic enough - she might’ve heard it before many times; she couldn’t remember -, but interacting with someone whose very attitude reflected it perfectly may have affected her much stronger than if she’d just been lectured about it. Back at home, she didn’t remember anyone who was like that, except for…

No, now wasn’t the time to be thinking about that. She’d always been the sentimental type as far as she could remember - maybe even a bit too much -, so her thoughts tended to wander in that direction quite frequently, but she didn’t want to let herself be distracted, not right now. At the moment, she just had to make sure she could find a way out - with as many of the others as possible, hopefully.

If she didn’t have any other choice… she was willing to use force when it came to convincing Izumi. All she would need is knock him unconscious temporarily to obtain the upper hand, and she’d have free-reign afterwards. She’d hesitated up until now - she wasn’t too fond of more violent methods, and she would’ve preferred not to get Kageyama involved in such a thing either -, but if she had to choose between desperate measures and putting the others in danger, deciding between the options was no difficult task.

Little did she know at the time, her plans would go up in flames.

* * *

Making his way across the hallway carefully, the boy paused - nobody was around, which was enough to convince him to leave his room for a while. He _had_ eaten before, but it was little enough to leave him dizzy for hours, the world spinning each time he moved a bit too fast. If he could just be by himself for a little while, he might be able to actually get some food down his throat in peace.

He only got to the lounge, though - albeit he did think that he was only hallucinating for a moment, leaving him almost twice as startled once what he was seeing clicked properly.

A body with its back against the wall, with a trail of dry blood leading to him…

The floor slipped from beneath Nakajima’s feet before the world blacked out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bye bye satan


	6. Chapter 1, Deadly Life - But first, investigate

Morning arrived explosively; falling out of bed at the sudden commotion, it took several seconds for Yokoyama’s eyes to be able to focus properly, coming face-to-face with Hayama, leaning over her with an expression even more panicked than usual.

Yokoyama almost punched her out of reflex.

Once it was obvious that she was still alive and well, Hayama let out a sigh of relief, scooting further away so Yokoyama could actually sit up. Although her brain was still fuzzy from her sudden awakening, she was still pretty sure she didn’t hear the announcement play - was it morning already…? That was the only way Hayama could be here, right?

Looking across to the other side of the room, she could see Aragaki standing with her arms crossed, Kageyama stretching his back, before he gave his eyes a sleepy rub.

“What is it…?” Yokoyama yawned, combing her fingers through her hair in an attempt to at least tame her bedhead for the time being.

Aragaki was the one who spoke up.

“Izumi is dead,” she stated bluntly, expression carefully guarded, as though she wasn’t quite sure if she was suspicious of Yokoyama or not. “Nakajima found him just a little while ago.”

The statement sank in only moments later, and Yokoyama found herself unable to speak at first; Kageyama was sitting up straighter than before, staring at the girl who’d just delivered the news.

“But… there was no announcement, was there-?” he blinked several times, clearly having trouble believing it so soon. A hint of surprise crossing Aragaki’s features, she studied his expression with slightly narrowed eyes before continuing.

“Did you sleep through it, maybe? The announcement played just a few minutes ago.”

Yokoyama bit her lip; she was sure she would’ve been woken up by such a thing.

Hayama raised her hand sheepishly.

“We… heard some noise from outside, and… apparently Nakajima-kun had left the door to the lounge open, so we were wondering if something had happened.”

“We found him on the ground in the lounge, then the announcement played. I thought he was dead before I saw Izumi,” Aragaki clicked her tongue, turning around to face Yokoyama fully. “Nakajima is probably fine for the most part, though. Hayama-san carried him to the infirmary for the time being.”

Yokoyama’s mind was racing.

“Did you get a closer look at Izumi-kun…?”

“Well… yeah,” Aragaki nodded, placing her hands on her hips with a displeased expression afterwards. "The cat appeared again before I could finish looking, though. There are some files for us to take, apparently.”

“Did you take any?”

“I wasn’t sure if it would be safe to.”

Yokoyama got to her feet, trying her best to organize her thoughts as she took a deep breath.

“Please check up on everyone else as well, then. We’ll be there in a moment.”

Nodding her head, Aragaki gestured for Hayama to follow her, and Yokoyama waited for the pair to be out of sight before she turned to Kageyama again. The boy seemed more frustrated with a pinch of shaken up than anything, but he seemed to be good enough at keeping himself composed; he got out of bed with a halfhearted attempt at brushing his hair out of his face.

“I guess we’re checking that out, then.”

“Kageyama-kun-“

He wore his usual, easygoing smile as he turned his head. He was trying to be reassuring, wasn’t he?

She was the adult here, though. A kid shouldn’t have been acting tough for her like that.

“…Come find Takahashi-kun with me. I want to ask him some things,” she said, resuming quickly soon after. “Before that… give me 5 minutes to get ready.”

Kageyama didn’t argue, which she took as a sign of agreement; walking off by herself to at least fix her appearance up to be presentable, she used her time alone to think the situation over.

It must have been the monitor in their room that was strange, if Aragaki and Hayama had heard the announcement in the lounge. It wouldn’t have been the A.I. that somehow managed to break it, would it…? If that wasn’t the case, though, that meant someone else must’ve tinkered with them during the day. She did fall asleep before the nighttime announcement played…

There was something else that was bothering her about the girls’ story as well, but she pushed it to the back of her mind as she entered the lounge once again, now looking decent at the very least. Kageyama was waiting by one of the sofas, giving her a small wave; she’d only ran past the area before, so she didn’t get to take a careful look at it, but Izumi’s body against the wall was impossible to ignore once she noticed it.

So it hadn’t been a lie, then…

A trail of blood lead to his body from one of the coffee tables, shards of glass scattered around the table itself, with a small pile of tablets on top of it, similar to the ones they’d been given before. Komatsu was crouching next to Izumi’s body, peering at him in a manner that sent some brief chills down Yokoyama’s spine, and she tried her best to disregard her as she walked up to Kageyama.

The boy seemed to have called for Takahashi already, as he himself soon arrived as well, albeit not meeting Yokoyama’s gaze for even a second. He must’ve been feeling guilty, hasn’t he? If he did his job right, though, there was nothing more he could’ve done…

Yokoyama opened her mouth to scold him loudly, but Kageyama’s hand on her shoulder silenced her immediately, and she was forced to swallow her words after a quick glance in her direction. Fine, perhaps her manner of comforting people wasn’t the most fitting for the situation.

“Takahashi,” Kageyama addressed the taller boy himself, his remarkably laidback attitude coming in handy, “you’re sure you were the last one to leave last night, right?”

A small nod was the response, and Yokoyama furrowed her brows. She did have a theory that she could most likely test as soon as she got a closer look at Izumi - as much as the idea made her shudder -, but the idea would only complicate everything further, so she would’ve preferred to be wrong this time around.

“Ah, but,” Takahashi lifted a hand, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck, as though he wasn’t even sure if he wanted to speak on his own, “I didn’t hear the night announcement play, though. I’m… not sure if that matters or not.”

With that single comment, he obtained Yokoyama’s full attention.

“You didn’t?”

“I left when there was only about a minute until nighttime,” he stated, glancing in the direction of the stairs for a brief moment. “The announcement didn’t play at all… but Komatsu-san was already asleep, so I left her be.”

“…Did you check the door?”

“I did, although… I did try to sleep before that, so I was an hour late. But it _was_ locked, so I didn’t… really think much of the whole thing, I guess.”

“It must be the monitors after all, then,” Kageyama snapped his fingers. “I bet they’re broken or something.”

“Rather than that…” Yokoyama’s face scrunched up slightly, trying to remember what the monitors had looked like. “We didn’t really investigate them, did we?”

“Well… duh. ‘Cause they’re way too far up,” Kageyama tilted his head, Yokoyama clicking her tongue soon after.

“I want to see if they can be turned off. We can check it later.”

Turning to Takahashi once again, she straightened her back.

“If that… trial really does end up happening, I’ll need you to testify once again in front of everyone else,” she crossed her arms, having to tilt her head back considerably to her annoyance just to be able to make proper eye contact. “Until then, please try to remember if you noticed anything else that was suspicious.”

Takahashi didn’t seem to have any objections, so Yokoyama made sure to thank him politely before she dragged Kageyama off towards the tablets on the coffee table, carefully avoiding stepping onto the blood or the glass. She would’ve preferred to keep her boots at least relatively clean to keep the incident out of her mind later.

Picking up one of the tablets, she turned it around in her hands, examining it skeptically.

“Are these what I think they are?”

“Only one way to find out…” Kageyama shrugged, picking one up himself to turn on the screen without much hesitation. Just as Yokoyama had figured, they were greeted with a report on the status of the body - she glanced past the somewhat morbid silhouette as she scanned the description.

_The victim is Izumi Mamoru._

_The body was found in the lounge with its back against the wall._

_The time of death appears to be around midnight._

_There are several bruises around the neck and the wrists, and the victim seems to have coughed up blood._

Yokoyama lifted her gaze towards the body, squinting for a moment before she dared to approach. She’d never actually seen a corpse with her own two eyes, and she would’ve preferred to keep it that way, but she supposed she didn’t exactly have a choice at this point; crouching down next to Komatsu, she watched as the girl rolled up Izumi’s sleeves, his shirt already unbuttoned to expose his neck. He really was covered in dark bruises, just like the file had said.

Yokoyama wondered if they’d merely been marks left behind by Akiyama’s rough treatment from earlier, or if there was more to them.

The shards next to the coffee table had come from one of the glasses that had been placed on top - as far as she could remember, at least -, but an injury by that would probably be more along the lines of a _cut_ … or several of them. Izumi didn’t seem to have any, though.

His clothes had managed to stay clean for the most part, miraculously, with the exception of a dark red smudge on one of his gloves - an attempt at wiping the blood off himself, perhaps… or at least that’s what the dried blood on his chin was suggesting. Only some of the stains leading to the body were large enough - most of them seemed to just be smaller drops that had fallen onto the carpet -; he’d probably stumbled a few times while he staggered over to his current place, judging by the messy state of the carpet itself.

“It’s intriguing,” Komatsu mumbled, not taking her eyes off of him for even a second. “He’s sitting on his cape, so he must’ve tripped over it before he landed like this.”

“…So?”

“I’m saying he didn’t have the strength to get up afterwards, Yokoyama-tan,” Komatsu directed a toothy grin in her direction, letting Izumi’s hand drop back onto the floor. The implications of her statement seemed obvious enough, but she was still obviously having fun with her not at all straightforward mannerisms.

Alright, if she wanted to be that way…

“Komatsu-san,” Yokoyama finally turned away from the disturbing sight, feeling just a bit relieved from that much already, “putting that aside… is there anything else that you noticed? Whether it was someone acting suspiciously or just something that was out of place-”

“The monitors,” she replied before Yokoyama could even finish, standing up soon after, being finished with investigating the body. “Y’all might wanna take a look at those… and the clocks. But, y’know, that’s just a hunch.”

The monitors, Yokoyama had figured, but the clocks…

She had a pretty good sense of time - or at least she liked to think so -, so she hadn’t paid much attention to them before, but as she got to her feet as well, her eyes travelled along the wall until it settled on the single clock in the lounge.

Yeah, something was definitely strange.

They were woken up shortly after 7 - that much, she was certain of -, and if not an hour, at least a _considerable_ amount of time must have passed since then. Despite that, the time according to the clock was still before 7.

It was off by an hour, then… But who changed it, and when? A ladder could’ve been easily borrowed from the storage or the store, so height wasn’t an indicator that she was going to take into consideration.

It must’ve been done during a time when nobody else would be around…

Realising that she’d left Kageyama behind, Yokoyama turned around - only to come face-to-face with him, as he’d been apparently leaning over her shoulder the entire time. An annoyed scowl creeping onto her face, she gave him an unimpressed stare, immediately assuming that he’d startled her on purpose, but he met her eyes with a completely innocent look.

“Where should we go next?”

Yokoyama rubbed her chin slowly.

“I’d like to take a look at the monitors, before anything else… and the rest of the clocks. We can check up on Nakajima-kun as well. He should still be in the infirmary…”

“Gotcha,” Kageyama nodded, taking a few steps in the direction of the staircase already. Yokoyama only followed after a moment of hesitation.

“Say, Kageyama-kun…”

She wasn’t going to take personal feelings into account, of course - it would be foolish to accuse people based on such a thing -, but the curiosity kept gnawing at her no matter how hard she tried to keep it down, and the words tumbled out one after another.

“Do you have any idea as to who could’ve done it?”

Kageyama’s gaze shifted around uncertainly.

“Is that really a question you should be asking…?”

Yokoyama turned her head to the side, now feeling somewhat guilty after placing that much pressure on a kid several years younger than her. She should’ve been better at controlling her impulses by this point.

“…Well, it’s fine if you don’t want to say it.”

Kageyama took a subtle look around, lowering his voice so as to not arouse any suspicion from the others - good; they didn’t need any more people paying more attention to them than necessary.

“Those guys… They aren’t _really_ the same people as they were back then, Yokoyama.”

She knew that, _she was fully aware of that._

Kageyama let out a sigh before his expression settled into a much calmer one.

“…If it makes you feel better, I don’t think it’s Aragaki. But that’s about all I’ve got.”

“Aragaki-san…?” Yokoyama blinked. “Why her in particular?”

“Call it a hunch,” Kageyama flashed a small smile, repeating the phrase Komatsu had used earlier. He really did seem to have an unusual amount of interest in Aragaki, didn’t he? Could it be…?

“Don’t tell me you have a crush on her…”

She might not have picked up on something like this before, but after being surrounded by girls her age who were all too keen on gossip and silly rumors, she’d gotten a bit too used to attributing obsession of this kind to attraction of the romantic kind.

Kageyama seemed to find the idea at least somewhat amusing as he stifled a small chuckle, although there was also something off about the reaction that Yokoyama couldn’t quite figure out on her own.

“I wish it’d have been that.”

That was pretty much the end of the conversation for the time being.

Checking the monitors didn’t take long - Yokoyama _kindly requested_ Kageyama to help her reach them, and he ended up sitting her on his shoulders, the girl keeping all her frustrations about the size difference to herself. She wasn’t going to drag a ladder up all the way to the second floor, and searching for one nearby would’ve taken too long.

Either way, she managed to discover a small switch on the side of them, letting her turn them on and off rather easily. Just as she’d thought as well, the monitors in the planes appeared to have been all turned off - figures that they wouldn’t notice. She had to start being more alert.

Once they were done with that, they headed to the infirmary, hoping to see how Nakajima was doing.

He was awake by the time they entered, although there was no telling when he could’ve woken up, since he was definitely the type to just curl up in the corner and stay still until he was forced out of it. Yokoyama _had_ dealt with much more frustrating people, so she couldn’t say she was particularly upset about it, but it did leave her squint at him slightly before shaking her head in dismay.

“If you were going to barricade yourself in here, you might as well have made yourself useful and investigate.”

Nakajima seemed to twitch before he answered.

“Y-you guys would’ve j-just come here anyway…”

Not that that was incorrect in any way… but still.

“…Alright, just stay there, then,” Yokoyama walked up to one of the shelves; if her suspicions were correct, this would most likely be the best place to look. “If you don’t think you can help, that’s fine, as long as you stay out of everyone else’s way.”

Nakajima appeared to take that as an outright insult; letting out an upset huff, he crossed his arms, grumbling something under his breath, albeit low enough for the other two not to hear. Yokoyama was tempted to snap - what kind of a parent would raise their kid to be so disrespectful to everyone around them? -, but before she could even really react, Kageyama turned to Nakajima himself, hands leisurely shoved in his pockets.

“Hey,” he tilted his head lightly, weight slowly shifting from one foot to another, “you’ve been here before, yeah?”

A small nod came as a response.

“…Once…”

“Can you remember if there’s anything different about the room than before, then?” Kageyama inquired, Yokoyama frowning at the question incredulously. She highly doubted someone like Nakajima would care enough to share, even if he did recall something so tiny - and honestly, he was so jumpy, she had trouble believing he was even capable of focusing on something like this to begin with.

To her surprise, Nakajima only complained about it quietly for a few seconds before he actually provided an answer.

“The bottles were moved around slightly… obviously. With… y-you guys rummaging around so much…”

“Is that all…?” Kageyama continued prying, patient as always. Yokoyama supposed _that_ was quite an admirable trait he had, if nothing else.

Nakajima averted his gaze.

“One of them is missing. B-but it’s not like I’d know which one it is, okay? You’d… have probably noticed it on your own if y-you weren’t all such mindless scatterbrains.”

Yokoyama held her breath for 5 seconds, counting silently in her head.

“Kageyama-kun… remind me to treat you to something later.”

She would’ve offered a drink - some of her classmates had been quite fond of that -, but _he_ wasn’t exactly of age yet… regardless of his physical body.

“There might n-not even be a later, you know…” Nakajima half-mumbled, Yokoyama unable to help but roll her eyes dramatically at the interruption; _of course_ he had to get his two cents in, even now. Sharply turning her head in his direction and causing him to let out a small, startled yelp in the process, she clicked her tongue.

“Not for you, maybe, with that attitude,” she scoffed.

Just as she finished the sentence, though, the nearest monitor turned on, displaying Mononeko in the usual manner.

She froze. _Of course_ something like this was going to happen, when they were running so late to begin with… Lifting a hand automatically in an attempt to bite at her nails, she dropped it quickly after noticing, taking a deep breath. Surely, the others have managed to get a look around as well - if someone like Nakajima could make himself useful, then it wasn’t hard to imagine that at least a few more people would have something useful to mention.

She hadn’t seen a few of them just yet, but this was the perfect time to get herself caught up on everything.

“Oh, dear… Looks like you’re out of time already! It sure is a shame, isn’t it?” the cat purred, comfortably crossing his legs. “Not to worry; I’m sure you’ll manage! You’re aaaaaall responsible adults here, after all, riiiight? You’ll probably do just fine!”

Yokoyama looked away from the infuriating sight with a huff.

“Do me a favor and gather in the lounge for now, will you? The trial won’t be any fun if any of you are late!” Mononeko continued, voice both annoyingly dramatic and high-pitched. “Anybody who purposefully chooses not to attend will be _punished_ , so I better not see any of you trying to skip out on it.”

Nakajima almost fell on his face from how fast he climbed out of bed.

As the monitor turned off again, Kageyama gestured for the other 2 to follow him.

“Whelp… you heard the guy.”

Unfortunately.

Gritting her teeth to keep in any kind of unladylike cursing, Yokoyama barely even reacted when Nakajima rushed past her, instead desperately trying to arrange everything she knew so far in her head. If she could just question everyone one by one… surely, all of this would’ve been over in less than an hour.

She would’ve bet all of her savings that letting anyone talk whenever they wanted to was going to be way too troublesome.

As they reached the lounge, she walked ahead, already scanning the area. Aragaki and Hayama were both present - the former leaning against one of the walls -, Komatsu had gotten comfortable on a sofa yet again, Nakajima had found himself a nice, lonely corner to curl up in, and Takahashi, not really knowing what to do with himself, simply stood around somewhere in the center, arms firmly pressed against his sides.

Although she hesitated briefly, Hayama soon approached Nakajima after he arrived, though Yokoyama paid no mind to their conversation. Rather, she marched up to a more urgent matter of concern - Sakurauchi standing with her arms outstretched in front of Akiyama, fairly pale, but unwilling to move.

“ _Like I said_ , how do we not know it’s not just him fucking with us!?”

“He’s _covered in blood_ , what- What more do you want!?” Sakurauchi raised her voice, though she couldn’t help but flinch as the taller boy took another step forward. “Komatsu Yui-san has already checked the body, you really should think this over…!”

“Hey,” Aragaki called over from her side of the room, expression unamused, as always, “there’s no point beating a dead guy. Which part of that do you not understand?”

“What she said…” Komatsu yawned, swinging her legs back and forth, having rolled onto her stomach. “Chillax, Akiyama-tan.”

“I’m not going to fucking chi-“

“Everyone, be quiet for a moment,” Yokoyama stepped between the pair, not caring in the slightest whether she could be intimidating enough by herself, wearing a dark glare regardless. She’d managed to piece together most of what was going on, and, yeah, she was going to side with everyone else on this one.

But then again, that was nothing new with Akiyama.

“I’m not going to condone violence,” she stated firmly, “but even if I did, this is just _filthy._ What kind of a man are you, with that little self-respect?”

‘Man’… as if anyone here was mature enough to be called that. Even if they were adults, barely any of them were acting like one at all.

“Oh, and _you’re_ going to lecture me about self-respect, are you? That’s real fucking rich coming from a dog of the government,” Akiyama sneered, roughly shoving her to the side. Something in Yokoyama snapped at that comment, and she hissed as she gripped her shoulder briefly, but Takahashi stepped in just in time, grabbing Akiyama by his collar to pull him back.

It seemed like he’d gradually become his babysitter.

“…Are you alright?”

The concern in his tone didn’t lack its usual melancholy, but the combination of that and the girl’s desires to act tough resulted in her brushing the incident off with a couple of inaudibly muttered insults, nodding her head afterwards. Takahashi’s expression softened once again until it was neutral enough, though not letting go of the cursing troublemaker just yet.

Sakurauchi mouthed a ‘thank you’ to them both before she shuffled off by herself, presumably to be able to talk to everyone else. Yokoyama nodded in approval.

Now… only Natsume was missing, wasn’t he? Good; if he was taking his time, that meant _she_ had more time to go over some things beforehand. Clearing her throat to gather Takahashi’s attention once more, she pointed at his free hand.

“Could I take a look at your watch?”

“My watch?” Takahashi blinked, though holding his hand out for her to take. “Sure…?”

Rolling up his sleeve to get a better look at the item, Yokoyama pursed her lips. Just as she’d thought, this one was off too. But Takahashi wouldn’t have just taken it off for no reason, would he…? How would someone be able to change the time on it without him noticing?

She dropped his hand in a panicked manner as a loud noise snapped her out of her train of thoughts, whipping around frantically - the door to the storage had been slammed open quite violently, though it didn’t seem like the culprit was someone on the outside. Kageyama, who’d taken a few steps in the direction of it before the commotion - to check it out before time really was up, presumably -, froze in place like a deer in headlights as a certain someone stumbled outside.

Having to grab onto the wall for support, Natsume stood with bandages haphazardly wrapped around his head, traces of dried blood all over his cheeks and forehead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i actually left out a couple of clues that i couldnt really find a place to fit in because of how awkward they wouldve felt lmao but theyll get brought up during the trial dw


	7. Chapter 1, Class Trial

“Guys… are you sure it’s really okay for him to be left like that…?”

Massaging her temples, Yokoyama didn’t pay much attention to the question - or Sakurauchi herself, for that matter. Too many things had happened today already, but the last few minutes had been especially taxing.

Gaze boring sharply into the roughed up boy’s, she clicked her tongue, noting with mild annoyance that he stared back in quite the cold and distant manner. As if him stumbling outside like that wouldn’t have been suspicious enough already on its own, Natsume had provided zero explanation whatsoever, letting everyone else talk over each other, trying to figure out what had happened.

Just a few seconds after he appeared, Mononeko announced that the trial would be starting… and the floor began rapidly descending, knocking almost everyone off their feet, Yokoyama just barely managing to avoid falling flat on her face. She didn’t get the chance to interrogate Natsume - or anyone she hadn’t gotten to talk to much beforehand -, which was quite irritating even without the building trying to kill her.

The space they’d landed in held resemblance to a courtroom, podiums arranged in a circle, one of them decorated with a black and white photograph of Izumi, crossed over with red paint. There didn’t seem to be any exits around - they’d most likely only be able to get out the same way they’d arrived… with the elevator mechanism of the floor.

4 large screens were hung up on the wall around them, spaced out enough for them to see them from anywhere in the room, most likely. The footage playing on them was of Mononeko, unsurprisingly - Yokoyama certainly didn’t appreciate it, but it wasn’t like there was much she could do about the whole thing.

She was sure she would’ve snapped that stupid robot puppet in half had she actually been able to get her hands on it.

“It’s not like we have much of a choice…” Kageyama let out a small sigh, leaning against one of the podiums. “I doubt we’re getting out of here for a while.”

“ _You’d_ know that, wouldn’t you?” Akiyama remarked with narrowed eyes, Takahashi’s fingers still firmly curled around the back of collar, just in case. “You realise you’re the most suspicious person here with fuckin’ Izumi out, right?”

“Hey, dude,” Kageyama lifted his hands, albeit not moving from his spot, “I’m not the one looking like a homicide victim here.”

Yokoyama elbowed him in the side sharply.

“That’s true, though…” Sakurauchi bit her lip. “Ah- I don’t mean to suspect you, Natsume Rintarou-san, it’s just…”

“There’s no reason not to suspect him either…” Aragaki muttered, arms crossed, Nakajima quietly agreeing in his corner.

Natsume took a deep breath before he reached up to adjust his glasses; one of the lenses appeared to have been cracked.

“I can assure you… I am not the person you should be suspecting, unfortunately,” he spoke up, his speech just a tiny bit more slurred than usual. He seemed to be swaying just a little too much.

“That’s what they all say…” Nakajima grumbled, Natsume raising a brow.

“Oh, but it is not as if I will deny my involvement in the incident. I would not gain much from assisting the culprit.”

“So you _were_ involved in it, then,” Yokoyama pursed her lips. Well, she’d guessed as much; it’d been fairly obvious.

“Ehehe… Natsume-tan had his plans ruined, I bet,” Komatsu giggled from the side. “You were gonna off him on your own, weren’t you?”

The answer was shockingly blunt.

“Naturally,” Natsume nodded.

Akiyama ripped himself out of Takahashi’s hold, the latter too stunned to respond in time, but found an ever so slightly tearful Hayama standing in his way, hesitantly outstretching her arms. Yokoyama realised a moment later that she’d been pushed there by Aragaki.

Aragaki herself took another step forward, only a few inches from the boy.

“What are you planning on doing? Beating the rest of his answers out of him?” she furrowed her brows. “Don’t make this any harder for us if he’s already going to cooperate… jackass.”

“Y-yeah, what she said…!” Hayama nodded her head vigorously, going along with the role she’d been shoved into.

Takahashi finally grabbed onto his shirt again.

“Thanks…” he breathed a sigh, Aragaki shrugging her shoulders in response.

“Well- What do you expect me to do, seriously!? This runt just admitted to planning a murder, and you guys are gonna let him off just like that?” Akiyama turned his head to send Takahashi an incredulous look.

“It’s what the trial is for, isn’t it?” Yokoyama placed her hands on her hips. As though he’d only been waiting for that particular question the whole time, Mononeko finally contributed his own part to the conversation.

“That’s right! And if you guys keep bickering like that, the blackened won’t ever be punished, you know!” he exclaimed, eliciting quiet groans and huffs from the group. “I can afford to stay here for aaaaaall eternity, but you guys will have to eat sooner or later.”

“So we’re stuck here until we cooperate…” Aragaki noted, brushing her hair out of her face. “Let’s just go along with it. We want to find the killer either way.”

“Who made y-you the boss all of a sudden…?” Nakajima glared at her, squishing himself against the wall as soon as Sakurauchi offered a hand to help him to his feet, the girl having to draw her hand back with a sheepish smile.

“…Right, actually,” Yokoyama cleared her throat, sending the boy a meaningful glance before she turned to Akiyama, “anybody who gets in the way is a freebie. I’m not planning on being stuck here my entire life. Go wild.”

“Isn’t that a bit too much…?” Kageyama objected carefully - it turned out to be for nothing, though, as Nakajima quickly scrambled to his feet upon the threat.

“What exactly are we supposed to do, though?” Takahashi looked to Yokoyama for guidance - he wasn’t alone in that regard.

“Discuss, discuss, discuss!” Mononeko ordered, gesturing wildly. “Take the place assigned to you, and discuss the case!”

“Ohh, it’s like a murder mystery game…” Sakurauchi rubbed her chin, flinching slightly at the dark look that settled on Yokoyama’s face after hearing that particular phrase. “W-well, isn’t it? I’m sure we can use those as a guideline…”

“’Tis a killing game, of course a game would work,” Komatsu followed along the podiums, stopping at the one that bore her name on it before lazily slumping across it.

Everyone else gradually followed, albeit some slower than others.

“The rules say we’re supposed to expose the blackened, yeah? So we just compare all the clues we have and see what we can make of it,” Kageyama suggested, having found his own placement.

“Are we supposed to press for a confession?” Yokoyama addressed Mononeko, the cat opening its arms in a sort of ‘who knows’ gesture.

“If you want a confession or not, that’s on you. All you have to do is guess correctly. The trial will end with a popular vote, and if you guys get it right, you’ll get to experience this a few more times later on!”

Fantastic.

“…Alright, with that out of the way, I’ll go ahead and take the liberty of laying some rules down,” Yokoyama straightened her back, already knowing that she’d only be able to intimidate the more timid people. Akiyama opened his mouth, only to be silenced by a jab from Aragaki. “ _Don’t_ interrupt anybody while they’re talking, and try not to go off-topic.”

“All the midgets are the bossiest ones…” Akiyama hissed, Yokoyama gripping her podium in an effort to control her temper.

“ _Do not waste my time with meaningless insults._ ”

“Before anything else, shouldn’t we get everyone’s alibi out of the way?” Sakurauchi asked carefully, Yokoyama taking a deep breath.

“…Yeah, that would save us some time. We can hear out Natsume-kun after everyone else is done.”

“Izumi-tan was killed at nighttime, wasn’t he? There’s not too many choices, Yokoyama-tan,” Komatsu grinned. “I’m not sayin’ it must’ve been Natsume-tan, but it was prolly Natsume-tan. Either that, or he offed himself.”

…Coming from Komatsu, it was hard to tell what she was being serious about - if there was anything like that in her speech at all.

“Let’s just put that aside for now,” Kageyama waved his hand, hooking his thumb in his pocket soon after. “If it’s nighttime, Yokoyama and I should be safe. We were together the whole time right until Aragaki and Hayama woke us up in the morning. That’s probably the same for those 2 too.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Aragaki confirmed it right away. “Nakajima left before us in the morning, but he was definitely there during nighttime.”

“I… don’t think he left at all… before that,” Hayama added, averting her gaze.

“I’m in the clear,” Nakajima stated, seemingly trying his best to sound as sure of himself as possible. “Because Izumi died at midnight.”

“Uhm, Akiyama Keiji-san and I were together as well,” Sakurauchi raised her hand.

“Natsume-kun was staying on his own…” Yokoyama tapped her chin, “but Takahashi-kun and Komatsu-san have alibis too, I imagine.”

For the time being, at least.

Komatsu nodded cheerfully.

“Takahashi-san was the last to leave, according to Kageyama-san,” Aragaki looked from one boy to another. “Natsume would’ve had to be really fast if he wanted to sneak out in that much time.”

“Takahashi would’ve mentioned it if he’d seen him acting strange, I’m sure,” Kageyama agreed.

“Not necessarily,” Yokoyama shook her head, only hesitating briefly. “Before we listen to Natsume-kun’s testimony, there’s something else we need to get out of the way.”

“It’s the time, the time!” Komatsu exclaimed, the tone of excitement soon wearing off. “Yokoyama-tan would know it, ‘cause she’s smart.”

“The time…?” Takahashi blinked. “Didn’t we already mention the time of death…?”

“Not that, no. It’s about the clocks… and your watch, from what I could tell,” Yokoyama explained, only pausing briefly so as to not let anyone else cut her off. “I took a look around with Kageyama-kun, and it seemed like the time on the clocks had been adjusted.”

“Oh, I remember this,” Kageyama’s eyes lit up. “Komatsu mentioned them too, back in the lounge. The time was off on all of them by an hour… ‘cause we were able to walk around freely despite the clocks saying it was still nighttime.”

“Wait, all of them? That’s an awful lot of work…” Sakurauchi whistled.

“It wasn’t like we were paying much attention to them during the day,” Yokoyama mused. “They could’ve changed each clock one by one, and we wouldn’t have noticed. The more problematic part is…”

“My watch…” Takahashi completed the sentence, glancing down at his own wrist. “I… don’t think I took it off.”

“Couldn’t Komatsu have changed it while he was asleep, then?” Akiyama let out an irritated huff, everyone’s eyes immediately turning to the girl in question.

“Eheee… Did I do that? It’s a mystery,” Komatsu beamed.

“If there really wasn’t any other time it could’ve been done, then that’s most likely the case… unless Takahashi-kun did it himself,” Yokoyama turned to him next. “How about it, Takahashi-kun?”

Takahashi seemed to be quite squirmy, but he didn’t avoid the question, at least.

 “Uhm… there might have been one time it could’ve been possible. I’m really not sure about it, though.”

“Natsume-kun… took you to the infirmary, right…?” Hayama fidgeted. “I heard you talking about it…”

“Oh, right,” Aragaki snapped her fingers. “I can confirm that.”

“Natsume-kun said he wanted to perform a physical examination…” Takahashi scratched the back of his head. “I didn’t really have any reason to refuse.”

“See…? It’s Natsume after all…” Nakajima scowled.

“We can’t be sure so soon, _Nakajima-kun,_ ” Yokoyama sent him a sharp glare, finally addressing the person whose testimony she’d been hoping to hear the most. “Natsume-kun, I’d like to hear your side of the story. Please tell us everything you know.”

Managing to silence pretty much all of the opposition in just a few seconds, Yokoyama tapped her foot impatiently; truth be told, Natsume had given her enough creepy serial killer vibes even beforehand, so it would’ve been a lie to say that part of her didn’t genuinely believe him to be guilty. Still, she couldn’t afford to let her personal bias influence her so much.

She clenched her jaw.

“Arara… I cannot say I am too surprised about the harsh reception, but I would advise you all not to jump to conclusions so soon,” Natsume adjusted his glasses, fingers twitching a little as they brushed past the bandages around his head. “Ah, do forgive me. It is admittedly hard to focus in such a condition.”

He sounded more annoyed than anything, but then again, his tone had been incredibly neutral every time Yokoyama had heard him speak before.

“Just… get to the point. Whatever,” Yokoyama let out a sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose briefly. “You were the one who changed the clocks, weren’t you?”

“Why, yes, that is correct,” came the answer, Natsume’s mannerisms back to being as nonchalant as before. “While you all were having breakfast, to be precise… I recall running into Kageyama-kun at one point.”

“Oh…! I remember that! _That’s_ why you had a stepladder with you!?” Kageyama gave a bewildered stare, flinching a little as Yokoyama’s attention was directed towards him. Eyes narrowed, she took up the most intimidating stance she possibly could, looking like she was ready to snap one or more of his limbs any second.

“And why didn’t you mention this important fact, _Kageyama-kun_?”

“I didn’t think it was relevant, sheesh…” Kageyama grimaced lightly, albeit not breaking eye contact just yet. “Natsume’s weird like that, y’know? It could’ve been for anything! He’s done way stranger stuff before.”

“He’s not exactly wrong…” Sakurauchi laughed nervously.

Yokoyama closed her eyes as she silently counted to 10.

“…From now on, you’re under extra strict surveillance. I’m not risking another incident like this again,” she stated, combing her fingers through her hair several times to try to calm herself by occupying her hands.

It would be fine - she wasn’t going to allow any more slip ups like this one. She couldn’t rely on Kageyama so much after all.

She couldn’t afford to be lenient.

“…Natsume-kun,” she exhaled, swiftly getting back on track, “you were also the one who turned the monitors off, weren’t you? Because you didn’t want the announcements to give it away that something was wrong.”

“He was probably going to change them back in the morning… had it not been for Nakajima, I doubt anyone would’ve been outside at that time, even if they’d been awake already,” Aragaki’s frown deepened, lifting her gaze soon. “An hour would be long enough to reset everything in the morning.”

“You were still the only one who wouldn’t have had an alibi, though,” Yokoyama squinted at Natsume, kind of wanting to shake her head in disapproval. “What were you going to do about that?”

“One thing at a time, Yokoyama-san,” Natsume shushed her gently, causing one of her eyes to twitch a little.

“So… Natsume snuck out after everyone else is what you’re saying. I fail to see how he’s not the culprit,” Akiyama remarked, tone much less aggressive than before, albeit still filled with as much spite as he could muster.

An unreadable expression crossed Aragaki’s features before she reached into her pocket, taking out a small bottle.

“Yokoyama-san,” she called out, hand stopping mid movement as she changed her mind, turning to Kageyama instead. “Kageyama-san, catch.”

Fortunately Kageyama wasn’t the clumsiest person around.

As he caught the bottle without much trouble, Yokoyama - standing next to him - leaned over to see what that was about, Aragaki ignoring the immediately suspicious stares thrown her way.

“I found it between a sofa and a wall. Wasn’t sure when to bring it up since the whole thing with Natsume happened, but there you have it.”

Of course something like that was going to set a certain someone off.

While Nakajima was content with mumbling to himself for the most part, each of Akiyama’s outbursts had been much more annoying.

“Yeah, okay, so how do we know you weren’t the one who put it there?”

Aragaki stared back for quite a while before she finally responded.

“Do me a favor and shut the fuck up.”

“A-Aragaki-chan is innocent!” Hayama spoke over her, choosing that exact moment to add her two cents as well, effectively putting out the fire before it could’ve even started as everyone else’s attention was now focused on her. “She has an alibi! We… We were together the whole time, s-so I would know…!”

“I think it’s safe to say it wasn’t either of these two,” Kageyama interjected, clearing his throat. “But if we’re talking about the most foolproof alibi, I think-“

“It’s obviously not yours,” Yokoyama huffed. “I don’t trust you to be alone for a minute anymore.”

Well… she was pretty sure he was the person she could have the most faith in right now, but then again, that was a pretty low bar to reach.

“Kageyama-tan…” Komatsu tried her best to lean closer - or as close as she could with the podiums and all -, pointing to the bottle in his hand. “That’s from the infirmary, prolly, so you might wanna be more careful with it. Might melt your hand off.”

“Wait, really-!?”

“What are you, 5?” Yokoyama let out an exasperated groan, Komatsu stifling a snicker. At least they were back on topic again…

“…It’s the one that was missing from the shelves,” Nakajima averted his gaze, seemingly preaching to the floor. “Natsume probably took it. He had plenty of chances to do it anyway…”

Quiet as he was, in a small room like this one it was audible enough, and Natsume tilted his head at the accusation, examining the bottle himself over Yokoyama’s shoulder.

“While you are not wrong about me taking a bottle… it was not this one. Furthermore… I did not receive the opportunity to hide it anywhere in the first place, so-“

“Guys, I’m pretty sure this isn’t medicine,” Kageyama passed the bottle over to Yokoyama, letting her read the label properly.

_Mononeko’s special relaxant_

_So relaxing, in fact, that your heart might cease to pump blood!_

_Only use if death is a desirable side effect!_

The rest of the medicine cabinet had been labeled in a similar manner - this much, Yokoyama could remember -, but she hadn’t actually come across _poison_ before. She supposed she must not have looked carefully enough.

This was troubling… She’d made another mistake out of carelessness.

“Even if this _was_ the one I had taken, it is quite obvious Izumi-kun had not been poisoned with it,” Natsume finally continued, pleased with the momentary stunned silence. “The condition of his body should tell you enough.”

“Right… because he coughed up blood,” Yokoyama bit her lip. “He would’ve suffocated to death had he been poisoned with this one.”

Takahashi timidly raised his hand.

“Izumi-kun was… injured pretty badly, wasn’t he? So… isn’t it possible the blood was from-“

“I doubt it’s from Natsume-kun harming him physically, if that’s what you were going to suggest,” Yokoyama shot him down swiftly, albeit gently. “The file listed all of the injuries he received. While I’m sure he’d gotten hit around the abdomen before, it would’ve been on there if it was recent enough to be relevant.”

“Not to rain on your parade or anything, Yokoyama-tan…” Komatsu waved her hand to catch the girl’s attention, “but it’s not like we can be sure it’s accurate.”

“Let me remind you that we don’t have a choice,” Yokoyama pursed her lips. “You were the one who checked the body, weren’t you?”

“I wasn’t gonna undress him,” Komatsu puffed her cheeks, sulking in an exaggerated manner. “I’m not into that… prolly.”

“…Wasn’t Natsume Rintarou-san going to continue?” Sakurauchi broke the brief silence that followed. “He mentioned something about not being able to hide the poison…”

Natsume’s face brightened.

“Ah, thank you. It pleases me to know that somebody was listening.”

 “Oh… Yeah, you’ve got injuries all over you, don’t you, dude?” Kageyama blinked. “Got into a scuffle or something?”

“If they got into a fight, there’d be no reason for us to trust the file, I’m just sayin’,” Akiyama sneered. “There was a broken glass on the floor, wasn’t there? He could’ve smashed it over Izumi’s head then dragged him away to make it look like he didn’t die instantly.”

“…Except Izumi-kun had no injuries like that. The only blood around his head was on his face, not in his hair,” Yokoyama corrected him with renewed patience. “If anyone was hurt by that glass, it was Natsume-kun. It’d explain his injuries enough.”

Natsume clasped his hands together.

“That is correct! I was hoping to be able to knock him unconscious with simple strangulation,” he explained quite cheerfully, a cold smile plastered on his face. “The location was kind of an unfortunate choice, though. I suppose that was a mistake on my part. I am not used to being without… my darling.”

“Your… ‘darling’?”

“Pay me no mind,” Natsume bowed his head slightly.

“If Izumi-kun knocked you out and you only woke up this morning… wouldn’t that mean he was the one who bandaged you up like that?” Takahashi asked, quite confused.

“It makes sense,” Yokoyama crossed her arms. “If he’d have let Natsume-kun die, he would’ve become the blackened, and would’ve had an especially hard time trying to cover his tracks. He would’ve been found out really fast.”

“I figured as much,” Natsume perked up. “I admit the lack of attention bothers me to no end, though.”

“Well, he was probably too panicked to do it properly… Either that, or he just didn’t care.”

Yokoyama wouldn’t have been surprised either way.

“…We should take a closer look at it after the trial. I don’t want to deal with another corpse,” she stated bluntly. “You’ll be put under surveillance after that.”

“Should’ve just let him die…” Nakajima muttered, taking a careful step further away from the boy as he turned his head in his direction.

“Oh, dear… That would be quite troublesome.”

“Hey,” Aragaki interrupted, pointing at the bottle she’d found, “if Natsume is in the clear, what are we going to do about that?”

“It was probably left there by the real culprit, right?” Kageyama looked to Yokoyama for approval. “Like a red herring or something.”

“Even if they wouldn’t have known about Natsume-kun’s plans, they could’ve left it there as a diversion. The poison is supposed to act quite fast, so it would’ve made Natsume-kun the most likely suspect due to his lack of alibi,” Yokoyama nodded.

“Still, we could’ve just disproved it by reading the back of it…”

“…Right. Good job on that.”

Her voice only had the tiniest hint of sarcasm… more than likely. At least that was one thing he did right.

“Wait, so… what _was_ the real cause of death, then?” Sakurauchi fiddled with her sleeves. “If the blood isn’t from a fight, then…”

“Poisoning,” Yokoyama replied without hesitation; she’d settled on the option pretty much as soon as she got a closer look at the body. Granted, she wanted to get everything else out of the way before she would bring it up - such is the way of the neat freak -, but it was still a detail that was hard to miss from the get-go. “Izumi-kun was poisoned.”

“Wouldn’t that still make Natsume Rintarou-san the only suspect? Surely, it wasn’t suicide…”

“Not necessarily,” Yokoyama shook her head. “Even if someone would’ve messed with the crime scene, Izumi-kun did go through the trouble of bandaging Natsume-kun up… so we can rule the suicide option out. He definitely didn’t want to die.”

“He could’ve been given a slow enough poison to only die from it around midnight… then?” Kageyama suggested, Yokoyama immediately nodding her head.

“That’s what I thought too. He wouldn’t have had to have been forced either, as long as the culprit was careful enough.”

“Oh, what about Akiyama, then?” Aragaki pointed at the boy next to her. “He’s been a pain to deal with so far so that would be a pleasant surprise.”

Yokoyama could’ve sworn she hadn’t heard her tell a joke before.

Akiyama grabbed her by the collar, Aragaki stopping Takahashi from interrupting with a single glance, returning the boy’s fierce gaze with a perfectly calm one of her own.

“You’ve no right to be upset; you’ve been accusing Natsume pretty stubbornly all this time. You really haven’t contributed much either.”

Her fingers curled around his wrists.

“You’re just a loud brat in a taller body.”

Aiming a kick at his stomach, she got him to weaken his grip, ripping his hands off right away. Taking a step back, Aragaki scowled.

“Don’t touch people so casually, you filthy morta-“

Catching herself mid-sentence, she cleared her throat, turning her head away with a strategically neutral expression. Kageyama seemed to be staring just a little too intensely.

Akiyama gritted his teeth as he straightened up; it seemed like Aragaki’s remarks along with her kick had taken quite a toll on his pride, leaving him unable to argue. Yokoyama didn’t exactly approve of violence… but self-defense, on the other hand, was very much desirable.

She had no idea why _Kageyama_ was so fixated on Aragaki, but she could definitely see why someone would want to get along with her. She was… tolerable, perhaps.

“The rest of us seem fine enough, and I’m sure we would’ve noticed if Akiyama-kun had done something to only Izumi-kun’s food,” Yokoyama broke the silence, slowly scanning the circle of people until her gaze settled on a certain someone. “I have a more solid suspect in mind. It’s only a theory, but… that said, it should be easy to disprove, if I’m wrong.”

Everyone’s heads slowly turned in the direction of the person she’d picked out.

“Komatsu-san… You wouldn’t happen to have any objections, would you?”

Tilting her head, Komatsu stared back without even a flinch.

“Huuuh… A bold accusation, Yokoyama-tan,” she remarked, propping up her chin nonchalantly soon after.

“But you were the only one who actually got to feed Izumi-kun something, weren’t you?” Yokoyama persisted. “It’s not as if I’m certain… but all we would need to do is test your leftovers. You wouldn’t mind doing such a thing to prove your innocence, would you?”

“Wouldn’t she have gotten rid of that by now…?” Kageyama questioned, Mononeko suddenly joining the conversation once again as soon as the sentence had finished.

“While we take care of the trash for you, it’s not as if it disappears! We can always dig up anything you need, whenever.”

“Eww…” Kageyama’s face scrunched up slightly.

“How about it, Komatsu-san?” Yokoyama straightened her back, already knowing what response to expect. “You can do this much, can’t you? Mononeko said we can take our time, so I’m sure we can afford to stay here for a few more hours to see if that results in anything.”

Komatsu didn’t move or speak for a few seconds at first; whether she was trying to assess the best possible action to take or just stall for time, Yokoyama couldn’t tell, but she was sure enough she’d refuse.

She wouldn’t have been so hesitant if she’d had nothing to worry about.

“…Sheesh, such a pain…” Komatsu let out a sigh, stretching her back afterwards. “Mm, I don’t really wanna eat garbage, so just think what you want. Everyone’s out if we vote wrong, so…”

She was trying to bluff, wasn’t she?

“If it was during the day, Kageyama-san and Yokoyama-san are both in the clear,” Aragaki furrowed her brows, counting on her hands. “Hayama-san and I were together the entire time as well, so the same goes for us… and as far as I’m aware, Nakajima never went outside until this morning. Natsume had gotten set up, so with him out… that would only leave Akiyama, Sakurauchi-san, Takahashi-san and Komatsu.”

“Kageyama-kun, what do you think?” Yokoyama turned her head in his direction, the gesture only registering a moment later for him.

“Me?”

“I’d like a second opinion.”

“…You think it’s Komatsu, don’t you?” he shrugged his shoulders, just a tad too awkward. “I trust your judgement, I think. I doubt anyone saw any of the others use the kitchen anyway aside from Akiyama…”

Right.

“Are… you guys sure we should leave it at that?” Sakurauchi swallowed nervously, recalling the rules of the game. “You know what happens if we get it wrong…”

Perhaps it was due to what Kageyama had told her that Yokoyama wasn’t quite as worried, or perhaps due to her confidence in her theory; either way, she stood her ground.

“Well, we _could_ spend a few more hours talking in circles until someone confesses by accident, but I don’t think that method would be very reliable.”

“…Fine, I can work with that,” Aragaki shifted her stance, looking the smaller girl in the eye. “I’ll trust you.”

“I- I agree with Aragaki-chan…” Hayama added, only fidgeting a little. “Yokoyama-chan seems very smart…”

One by one, most of the others came to agree, Mononeko observing the process in anticipation. He was probably looking forward to being able to start the voting or whatever… Annoying, but to be expected.

“Dunno what y’all are so worked up about anyway…” Komatsu pouted, drumming on the podium with her fingers. “It’s not like you care, right? Otherwise you wouldn’t be here.”

Even though Yokoyama had to admit the reasoning lined up with her own very closely, the fact that she was included in that was just a tiny bit insulting.

“Speak for yourself,” she clicked her tongue, giving Kageyama a jab in his side as he opened his mouth. She would’ve preferred not to have to address any unnecessary commentary for now, much less try to cover for Kageyama in case he decided to blurt out more suspicious lines by accident. Raising her voice before anyone else could speak, she turned to look at one of the screens. “We can vote now, right? Let’s just get it over with, then.”

Mononeko clapped his paws together.

“I thought you’d never ask! Voting time it is, then!”

The small monitors that had been embedded in each podium turned on simultaneously, showing a list of everyone currently present with the addition of Izumi, profile shots added on.

“Go on and make your choice. There’s a 1 minute time limit, so those who want to take their time should exercise caution! Failure to vote will result in punishment.”

Of course Nakajima was the first one to immediately cast his vote after hearing something like that.

One by one, everyone made their choice, Yokoyama being one of the first, feeling confident in her answer. It was unfortunate that it had to come to this, but she couldn’t afford to mope, no; she had to form a new kind of strategy to make sure the incident wouldn’t repeat itself. If Kageyama’s… friends, or whatever, reset the program again, then so be it, but she had to try her best to hold her ground until then.

As soon as the minute passed, the results were announced, and the cartoonish confetti covering the screens made it clear they’d gotten it right. Though there were a couple of scattered votes, Komatsu had received the majority, and despite what was about to happen, Yokoyama felt a wave of relief wash over her. She really did have the right idea.

She really was right to feel sure of herself.

“…So it was you after all,” Aragaki noted, examining the girl with curious eyes. “Strange… I wouldn’t have thought that kind of motive would get you to go for it.”

“Oh, it wasn’t the motive,” Komatsu responded immediately, not even bothering to put up any kind of act anymore. Her attitude was just the same as always; aloof with an air of detached lightheartedness, as though she didn’t have anything in the world to worry about. Lifting her head, she tilted it further and further back until she was staring at the ceiling. “Or… part of it was, maybe. Just out of spite, so none of you could have it.”

“Why would you… kill someone like that…?” Sakurauchi’s voice faltered.

“Mm… Guess you wouldn’t know. Y’all still don’t have all your memories back, huh?”

The statement caused Yokoyama to freeze.

“Too bad, ‘cause I won’t be the one to tell you,” Komatsu finally looked back at them again, her mouth stretched into a wide smile. “You won’t receive a single bit of help from me. Every single last one of you deserves whatever will be coming for you.”

Taking a few steps back, she made a low humming sound before she continued.

“I guess if you want a hint… you should probably be asking Kageyama-tan, shouldn’t you?”

And with that, she turned around and ran.

* * *

 

She wasn’t paying much attention to the others; the burst of adrenaline made her feel lightheaded, and her heart was pounding loudly enough in her ears to muffle whatever sound _could_ have gotten through. She wasn’t going to give up so soon, not just yet - she had no idea if she’d get another chance like this one, or if this was the last time she’d remember everything again.

She’d always been good at running from trouble.

The wall was made of smooth metal, but there were enough wedges to grab onto. She’d just have to find a way to start the elevator up again, and she’d be free to go. There was no surefire exit, but there _was_ still one option she hadn’t tried, and even if it wasn’t going to work, it was the only thing she had left. She just had to find a way to get to a window…

Before she could get far enough, she felt cold metal circle around her neck, and she was yanked back, the air knocked out of her. The impact as she hit the floor was painful enough to leave her immobile for several second, head spinning, and it was just enough time for a circular glass tank to be dropped on top of her, cutting off any escape routes she might’ve had left.

A drop landed on her head, soon followed by a steady flow of water from the pipe connected to the top of the tank. It was slow enough for her to have time to take in the situation fully, and she grinded her teeth; _of course_ she wasn’t going to have the easy way out.

Closing her eyes, she repeated curses under her breath one after another.

Soon, there was no more air left. There was only water, more water, and her chest kept getting tighter and tighter and it hurts it hurts _it hurts ithurtsithurtsithurtsithurts-_

The water had turned a light shade of red.

* * *

**Chapter 1: End**

**Survivors: 14**

****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dangrope taught me a lot about how to draw out really simple conversations by having stupid teens/young adults yelling at each other  
> and yes im counting the past kg participants in the survivor list fuck you fight me


	8. Intermission - Hello, me

Minutes passed by one after another, but Minamoto found herself pacing up and down even now, having no idea what she should be occupying herself with. Had she come to care about a bunch of strangers so soon already…? Perhaps. She would’ve been lying if she hadn’t been wanting to check on Takahashi in particular even now.

It… wasn’t like she’d really had any friends before, after all…

She’d let the others handle the situation so far; she was just a bookworm, there wasn’t much she could do to help out. She felt kind of stupid compared to the others, actually, if she had to be honest. She couldn’t even encourage anyone properly.

She’d only gotten a brief look at the program so far; even though she knew it wasn’t _real_ , not really, her stomach still tightened with anxiety in the few minutes she’d spent observing it, wanting to bury herself underneath a blanket to just hide from all of her problems in hopes that they would go away. Tsutsui would reassure her whenever she took notice of her stressing out over something, but Minamoto had started to feel bad for requiring so much attention after a while, feeling like she was a child in need of babysitting.

She was still thinner than she should’ve been.

The blank in her memories felt uncomfortable, and moving around in this kind of body was just… strange. It didn’t feel right, no matter how hard she’d been trying to get used to it. She’d braided her hair like she used to wear it in hopes that it’d help her feel more like herself, but it only worked for a short moment, the discomfort soon returning.

She’d been pretty far from a glutton before, but now even the smallest amounts of food could upset her stomach at times.

She heard someone had died again - she’d gotten used to hearing these kinds of news by now. She wasn’t exactly the optimistic type, and though she hadn’t let the others know, she wasn’t even really sure if it was possible to get everybody out.

Hanamiya had decided to make an exception this time around.

It did make sense, she supposed. Even if her social intelligence was embarrassingly low, she still thought of herself as _relatively_ logical; if they couldn’t get everyone out at once, then they just had to try doing it one by one. They couldn’t afford to stay here for a lifetime trying and trying over again - even if they could’ve, she yearned to go back home once again.

She was missing her father back at home, her messy room with her books and papers scattered all around the place, the kitchen she’d clumsily attempt to cook meals for herself in, and the pile of scarves at the bottom of her closet that she used to dig through several times a day. She’d moved around so much before, she didn’t have many experiences with feelings of homesickness, but this time was different, and how little she knew about her circumstances just made it worse.

Was her father even alright…?

Tsutsui didn’t know her parents very much; she’d told her recently. Minamoto had scoffed back then. She seemed to hold so much affection for the parents that had neglected her so much, but that wasn’t fair, was it? If they weren’t even around to do their job, they didn’t deserve the title of parent in the first place.

Now, though… She thought she might’ve grasped the idea a little better. She felt so alone, and relying on the others when they already had plenty of things to deal with on their own didn’t feel right at all. She wanted to be able to ask an adult for help, and if it couldn’t have been her father, part of her would’ve even taken her shitty mother a substitute.

She let herself slump over onto the bed, burying her face in the sheets with a frustrated groan.

How long had they been here? Were they ever going to be able to go back home…? Did she even have a home to go back to at this point…?

A knock on her door caused her to flinch before lifting her head again, glancing over her shoulder with a small frown. Had someone come to console her…? Even if that was the case, she had to learn to stand on her own two feet…

Staggering over to the door, she opened it to find Tsutsui looking for her; Minamoto had always been good at language, if nothing else, so she picked up basic sign language rather fast.

“ _I was looking for you. The others would like to talk._ ”

Did she get in trouble somehow…? No, it must’ve been an announcement… or something. She really had to stop immediately jumping to the worst conclusion every time.

She cleared her throat nervously.

“Alright, I’ll be right there… Is-“

_Is Takahashi-kun alright?_

The words couldn’t come out.

Even if he was still in there, this wasn’t the same Takahashi she’d gotten to know.

Though, that would also mean… he hadn’t…

…Could she really blame him for something he was basically forced into? Something that he most likely didn’t even recall anymore…?

She felt a hand brush her shoulder, soon rubbing soothing circles on her back; she let out a breath she hadn’t even realised she’d been holding, the tension fading from her posture just a little.

“ _Everything will be alright._ ”

She was sure the girl didn’t _really_ believe that, but even so, just the reassurance itself provided a small amount of comfort. Even if she was supposed to be her age, Tsutsui really did feel like a mom sometimes.

Letting herself be guided towards their usual spot, Minamoto squeezed the hand she’d been offered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ch2 should be up in a few days; honestly i was going to add the immediate aftermath of the trial to ch1 but it felt a lot more appropriate to end it with an execution, even if it was a bit abrupt, so yall will be getting that with the next update


	9. Chapter 2, Daily Life - Try again

The ground shook, and Yokoyama almost lost her footing, managing to hold onto her podium unlike some of the more unfortunate people who landed on the floor due to the tremors. They barely had time to register what had happened to Komatsu; it didn’t seem like Mononeko was going to let them have a break. The floor began rising as the girl’s body disappeared from view, but the shaking persisted, to the point where Yokoyama might’ve briefly thought the building was going to collapse on itself.

It was a scary thought.

As the lounge returned the way it had been before the trial had started, she noticed several things.

For one, the mess from before was gone… and along with that, so was Izumi’s body. There was no blood, nothing; it was as if he hadn’t ever been there in the first place. It was sort of… unsettling.

The earthquake - or whatever it was - gradually settled, but by now it became quite clear what had caused it in the first place. It was clearly visible through the windows; one of the planes had begun to fall, parts of it breaking apart so easily it looked like a crumbling toy. After the last bit of metal securing it to the building was severed, it disappeared beneath the clouds fast enough, leaving everyone around completely speechless, some of them quite pale.

Did that really just happen…?

Mononeko laughed.

“Oh, don’t worry about that; it wasn’t malfunctioning or anything! That’s just what happens when a trial concludes, you know? You guys don’t need so much space if there are less of you, after all, right?”

Kageyama helped Aragaki to her feet.

“You should be glad instead! You get to live one more day; you’re pretty lucky! You humans are dying waaay to easily these days…”

“Is everyone alright?” Yokoyama inquired as she scanned the room with her gaze, receiving hesitant nods, making a point to ignore that stupid cat. Everyone was still shaken up after seeing something like that, huh… She couldn’t really blame them, though. She was sure she wouldn’t be able to eat for a while with the way her stomach tightened up, akin to seasickness.

“I’m sure as hell not getting on one of those again…” Nakajima muttered under his breath, slumping down onto the sofa with a face even paler than usual.

Mononeko tried his best to get at least one of them to respond, but even Akiyama seemed to be too preoccupied with regaining his composure to pay attention to him, so the monitors turned off soon enough. Ironically, that only made the atmosphere feel heavier. Still, they… couldn’t just stand around in silence.

“…We need a new plan,” Yokoyama let out a sigh, taking a seat herself with a deep, thoughtful frown.

“Like what, exactly? You don’t really trust everyone to do what you tell them to do even when you’re not around, do you?” Akiyama raised a brow; his tone was void of aggression, this time only filled with genuine cynicism, like he couldn’t fathom the idea of cooperation working. Not that that was far from the truth, but…

“Oh, believe me, I’ll find a way,” Yokoyama narrowed her eyes, turning to the person standing the closest to her soon after. The pick was… strangely fitting. “Natsume-kun, do you remember if the storage had any handcuffs?”

Natsume tilted his head a little, visibly holding back from just marching off on his own - unaware as he was, even he could tell that it wouldn’t end well if he walked off right now after all this.

“It may be possible… I do recall seeing something like that.”

Perfect.

Yokoyama got to her feet immediately, placing her hands on her hips.

“From today on, each of you will be handcuffed to another person. You will only be permitted to take them off if there are at least 2 more people around,” she stated firmly, feeling more and more confident in her new plan. “I don’t want anybody wandering off on their own, no matter what.”

Half of the group was outraged, while the other half didn’t seem to care all that much.

“…That’s fine by me, as long as I get to choose,” Aragaki shrugged her shoulders. “It’s not that different from what I’ve been doing.”

“T-there’s no way I’m agreeing to that…!” Nakajima objected, scooting to the furthest part of the sofa right away. “I’m n-not going to be alone w-with any of you guys, and t-that’s that…”

“I think it’s a pretty good idea,” Kageyama looked from one person to another, sort of puzzled by the wide variety of reactions he was seeing. “Yokoyama’s smart, anyway. We’re probably better off listening to her.”

“The only person I’d ever want around me like that is a hot girl, and that’s none of you,” Akiyama huffed, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Hands off, midget.”

“If I have to chase you down one by one, then that’s what I’ll do,” Yokoyama took a step forward, determined to make this work. “Either way, I’m not letting anybody commit another murder.”

“You’re making yourself look awfully suspicious, you know,” Aragaki remarked, her gaze settling on Akiyama. “If you’re not planning on doing anything, you’re better off agreeing.”

The boy clicked his tongue.

“Takahashi-kun,” Yokoyama addressed the tallest boy next, her tone considerably calmer, “could I trust you to fetch some handcuffs from the storage?”

He seemed way too distraught to be dangerous at all at the moment.

Giving her a small nod once he realised what she’d asked, Takahashi walked off, Yokoyama letting out a sigh of relief.

“There’s an odd number of people, though…” Sakurauchi bit her lip. “I’m not against the idea, per se, but what are we going to do about that?”

“Oh, that’s simple enough. I’m planning on keeping an eye on both Natsume-kun and Kageyama-kun, so that won’t be an issue,” Yokoyama waved her hand, not having considered that an actual concern for even a second.

Kageyama blinked.

“Wait, Natsume…?”

“I want to question him. But besides that… I don’t trust anybody but myself to be able to do this properly. Do you have any objections?” Yokoyama crossed her arms, and Kageyama let out a sheepish laugh.

“Guess not…”

He wasn’t too keen on Natsume being around, was he? Then again, probably nobody here would’ve been.

“I’ll assume it won’t bother you if I pick Hayama-san,” Aragaki tilted her head a bit. “For simplicity’s sake. We’ve been pretty much together the entire time, either way.”

“Sakurauchi-san, you can have Nakajima-kun,” Yokoyama suggested, albeit with a tone that didn’t leave much room for refusal. “I suspect out of the ones left you’re the least likely to give him a heart attack. Also… Takahashi-kun should definitely be the one to watch over Akiyama-kun. I don’t want the latter injuring anybody.”

“…Yeah, no, vetoed,” Akiyama rolled his eyes. “Think what you want, but I’m not fucking willing to subject myself to that. I’m not a doormat like the rest of you.”

“It’s for your own safety too,” Yokoyama stood his glare without hesitation as usual. “I disapprove of your mannerisms, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to let any of you die on me, you included.”

“…Why do you care so much about shit like that, anyway? You heard what Komatsu said back then, didn’t you?” he leaned against the wall with a sneer. “Well, I’m not like you guys, so I’m probably not included in that. But the rest of you, you’ve got nothing to go back to, don’t you? If you were so apathetic before, why give a shit about whether you live or die now?”

“I wouldn’t throw my own life away so easily,” Yokoyama retorted, temper rising dangerously fast. “Don’t you dare look down on me like that… You have no idea what I’ve been working for…!”

“As if you haven’t been doing that to literally everybody else! You talk like a smartass, but you’re really just a hypocrite!”

“Don’t talk like you know anything about me!” she pretty much shouted, hands curling into fists. “You haven’t done _anything_ to help anybody the entire time we’ve been stuck here, so that already makes me miles better than you…!”

Kageyama stepped in front of the girl just in time, grabbing onto her shoulder to stop her from charging forward.

“Hey, chill-“

“Oh, yeah, and how much did your plan help us? 2 people are dead already, in case you haven’t noticed!” Akiyama snarled, pushing himself away from the wall. Before he could do anything else, though, the person Yokoyama expected the least to interrupt raised their voice.

“How… How dare you treat Yokoyama-chan like that!”

All eyes turned to Hayama, but she didn’t even seem to notice; she only stared straight at Akiyama, expression filled with hurt and anger.

“How _dare_ you ignore her kindness like that! Do you have any idea how many people wish every single day that they’d have _one_ person tell them something like that!? Do you know how many people die because _nobody_ would do something like that for them!?”

She wiped her eyes as soon as a single tear appeared, voice shaking a little despite her best efforts.

“Y-you’re such an ungrateful brat…! You’re… You’re so…”

Everyone’s attention was pulled to the side at the sound of metal clinking to see Takahashi standing around awkwardly, clearly hesitant to speak.

Yokoyama averted her gaze before she cleared her throat.

“R-right, Takahashi-kun… Thank you for your help.”

It seemed like he was only able to find 4 pairs… Still, that was far better than nothing.

Trying her best to ignore the awkwardness seeping into the air, Yokoyama hand the handcuffs out herself, letting Takahashi keep the last one. She gestured towards Akiyama.

“Make sure to take care of him, alright? This is something only you can do.”

His eyes lit up subtly the same way they had when Kageyama had trusted him with keeping watch, though it was quite brief yet again. Still, it seemed like no matter how drained he was always acting, part of him still wanted to be counted on. That was reassuring enough, at the very least.

Aragaki walked off with Hayama - to console her, presumably, or perhaps just to get away before she had a reason to snap at someone herself. Strangely enough, Hayama’s outburst seemed to have been enough to shut Akiyama up for the time being, though he seemed just as irritated as he’d been before. Yokoyama felt herself twitch as the insults he’d hurled at her echoed in her head, taking a deep breath to calm herself down and forcing herself to focus on the others for now.

Kageyama’s hands sank into his pockets, though his body language was unusually stiff.

“Hey, uh… What are we going to do about him at night…?”

Natsume, huh…

“…I don’t want to leave him unsupervised,” Yokoyama sighed, brushing her hair out of her eyes. “I’m a light sleeper, but… just in case, maybe we should leave him tied up for the night.”

“Ah…? Is the person in question perhaps me?” Natsume poked his head into the conversation. “It is not as if such extreme measures are necessary.”

“You only have yourself to thank for it, either way,” Yokoyama narrowed her eyes, taking it upon herself to cuff the 2 boys together. It wasn’t like she was planning on letting them out of her sight, so as long as they couldn’t split up, everything should be fine.

“Is Nakajima going to be okay…?” Kageyama turned his head in the direction of said person to see Sakurauchi crouching in front of him, seemingly trying to plead. She was the least intimidating option left, so if she couldn’t do it, they had to think of a way around it. Using force this time was… a choice Yokoyama was somewhat hesitant to make - she wasn’t sure what Nakajima might do if he was forced. He didn’t seem like he’d be able to cause substantial harm to someone else without a weapon, but himself, on the other hand…

Well, for now, they just had to wait and see.

“…Let’s go take a look upstairs. I want to see which rooms are still available,” Yokoyama declared, ignoring the question for the time being. Grabbing the chain between the pair, she began walking towards the stairs, dragging them after her, albeit without much resistance on either side.

“As long as it’s not the infirmary, we should be fine, yeah? I mean, we’ve got the kitchen and baths in the lounge area…” Kageyama rubbed the back of his neck, Yokoyama nodding her head promptly.

“I’d prefer if the library was still there too, though…”

“Even though we’ve already searched it…”

“No, we weren’t done with it yet,” she grimaced slightly. “I still want to take another look in there today, if I can.”

“Figures… Well, not like there’s much else to do.”

“The others probably won’t be around either, so… it should be safe to have a little chat with this guy,” Yokoyama glanced at Natsume. “I imagine most of them will need some time to be able to get over… that.”

“Ah, but experiencing death is not such a rare phenomenon, actually,” Natsume tilted his head, causing Yokoyama to flinch a little with the blunt interruption. “By the time someone reaches adulthood, they have most likely gone to a funeral. I doubt this kind of incident would cause much disturbance, unless one was uncomfortable with seeing blood.”

“You pulled that right out of your ass,” Kageyama remarked dryly, with a surprising amount of awareness for once.

“Please, I did no such thing.”

“Most people aren’t you, dude.”

Yokoyama shushed them at the same time, though Natsume still spoke up again shortly.

“By the way… I was wondering if I would be allowed to pay a visit to the infirmary.”

“To fix yourself up…? If it’s still there, that is…” Yokoyama replied, shrugging her shoulders lightly.

As she finally reached the second floor first, she let out a sigh of relief; she’d memorized by now which hallway was which, noting with relief that both the infirmary and the library were still very much intact - unless Mononeko had switched around the planes, that is. The now unusable door was faintly glowing red with a ‘closed off’ sign hanging off of it - it was the one Takahashi and Komatsu had been using, with the music room and whatnot. Whelp, that wasn’t a huge loss.

Kageyama tripped over his own feet, almost crashing into her in the process. Maybe the whole handcuff thing was going to be a tad more troublesome than she’d originally thought.

“The music room is gone, but we should still be good,” she stated out loud, stepping out of the way. “Let’s go take Natsume-kun to the infirmary, then.”

“Thank you,” Natsume smiled brightly.

At least he’d been pretty cooperative so far… Hopefully Yokoyama wouldn’t need to force anything out of him and he’d just spill everything she wanted to know on her own.

She would’ve been more concerned about not getting enough privacy with Kageyama for certain discussions had she not suspected something already.

“…Hey, Natsume,” Kageyama walked ahead slightly, opening the door up. “While we’re at it… Why did you try to kill Izumi like that?”

Straightforward as always… Then again, they were pretty alike in that regard… Yokoyama herself included, perhaps.

She waited for the pair to enter before closing the door behind them, just in case anyone tried to eavesdrop. She was pretty sure no sound would be able to get through from the outside.

“Oh, that is merely because I was absolutely furious at the time,” Natsume responded obediently, mouth stretched into one of his regular smiles. “I dislike being deceived.”

“You mean… like this whole situation?”

He received a nod.

“…Why did _you_ come here, then?”

Natsume rubbed his chin thoughtfully before he replied.

“It just so happened that I lost my darling children in an accident recently… I was absolutely heartbroken, you see. I could not bear to be without my lovelies, so I spent quite a while pondering what I should do.”

“Your snakes…?” Kageyama blinked; Yokoyama’s face scrunched up in mild confusion. _Of course_ Kageyama would know something like that… but still… _snakes_!?

Natsume adjusted his glasses as he entered the infirmary, walking up to one of the cabinets without hesitation while he began unwrapping the bandages.

“It is not as if they have passed away just yet, fortunately… but they have been ridden with a disease that leaves them weaker with each passing day. I was hoping I would be able to find a cure here. Alas, I have not yet fulfilled that.”

“You shouldn’t be surprised about that,” Yokoyama huffed, placing her hands on her hips. “This was pretty obviously shady from the start.”

“Perhaps… but even so, I would gladly forfeit my own life just to save my precious children,” Natsume exhaled softly, seemingly having no trouble treating his injuries on his own. He was just that desperate then, huh…

Still, murder had no excuse, successful or not. Yokoyama turned her head to the side.

“Who were you going to take with you, then?”

“Komatsu-san, actually,” Natsume stated without hesitation, not noticing the stunned, silent reactions that followed. “She seems to be surprisingly knowledgeable about drugs and whatnot… I was hoping she would be able to lend me a hand in the treatment.”

“You’re pretty simpleminded… What makes you think she would’ve helped you?”

Natsume glanced at her with mild surprise.

“Ah…? Is it not basic courtesy to repay someone who grants you a favor?”

Kageyama actually seemed to think that over for a moment.

Natsume’s hands moved fast, and with precision; he didn’t even wince a single time as he cleaned the wound, applying the disinfectant soon after. He must’ve been used to doing this sort of thing - he _was_ covered in scars, so that might’ve been a given. Yokoyama didn’t know much about snakes, but it honestly wouldn’t have surprised her if that’s how he’d gotten so many injuries.

“You look quite puzzled…” he raised a brow. “Maybe my story was not quite what you were expecting to hear… but it is not as if I am the only one who has such a motive. Did you not also have a reason to come here yourself?”

“…I’m just here to investigate,” Yokoyama took a seat on one of the chairs, crossing her legs. “Nothing more, nothing less. Of course I wasn't expecting to end up in this mess…”

Of course there was more to it, but… but…

Kageyama sent her a curious look before Natsume addressed him with the same question.

“Me?” his lips twitched into a nervous smile, caught off-guard by the question. He was an atrocious liar. “I… actually don’t remember.”

“My… How intriguing,” Natsume remarked, finally finished with the bandages as well. He took off his glasses in an attempt to examine them closely, though he gave up soon enough, placing them back on again - judging by the way he was squinting, he couldn’t see much without them. “I admit I am quite interested in hearing the story behind that… and behind your discussion with Izumi-kun, before he passed away.”

Yokoyama’s eyes bore into him sharply.

“You overheard that, didn’t you? That’s why you went after Izumi-kun so fast…”

“…Possibly,” Natsume put his gloves back on, not looking like he was going to deny anything. “Though I was still left quite confused by it.”

“Are you sure we can talk to him about this…?” Kageyama interjected carefully; if it had been anyone else, Yokoyama would’ve been more wary herself, but…

“It’s alright. Nobody trusts him right now enough to believe anything he might tell them,” she shook her head. “The more people I can make use of, the better. Please fill him in for me.”

It was in Natsume’s best interest as well that they get out as soon as possible.

Kageyama shrugged, going along with it for now; he began summarizing the basic situation to Natsume, while Yokoyama got up to stand by the door. Kageyama wasn’t stupid enough to raise his voice, but someone still could’ve opened the door just slightly enough to eavesdrop, so she took on the job of guard for the time being, tuning out the conversation itself pretty successfully.

Now, then, what else did she have left to do…?

There was still some time left of the day - she hadn’t eaten at all yet, though she hadn’t been too bothered by it until now. Still, she wasn’t sure how well she would be able to focus with an empty stomach… maybe it would be better to just eat a little beforehand…? And after that, they could search the library.

She had to take a bath soon, too…

She groaned quietly under her breath.

* * *

 

“I kinda wish we would’ve stayed there for longer…” Kageyama sighed, grabbing another book off a shelf. He really wasn’t great at things that required prolonged focus - that much was quite obvious -, but he seemed to be trying his best, at the very least…

Natsume, on the other hand, kept getting lost in thought, finding a book that would pique his interest and leave him immersed enough to stop searching completely. Figures… Well, it was still better than him going around, causing trouble for everyone else.

“Even after all of this, you’re still that hungry…?” Yokoyama gave him an unimpressed look.

“Hey, we _could_ be doing a lot worse…” Kageyama retorted weakly, soon continuing. “We… _were_ doing a lot worse. So, y’know…”

“What, are you used to it already?”

“Sorta…?”

That was not the kind of response she wanted to hear.

She bit her lip.

“Well, try not to get _too_ used to it. You might develop Stockholm Syndrome at this rate.”

“That kinda stuff only happens in movies, you can’t scare me with that,” Kageyama replied with a light grin, waving her concerns aside completely. Natsume raised his head from his book.

“Developing that sort of condition in these circumstances is not that unthinkable, though… but you _are_ rather simpleminded. Perhaps that may be a blessing in this scenario.”

“Am not,” Kageyama leaned against a shelf with an expression only mildly incredulous. “You just gotta keep your chin up in these situations. I’m pretty reliable when it comes down to it; tell him, Yokoyama.”

Yokoyama’s face contorted into a faint scowl.

“I _might_ if you were actually focusing on what we’re supposed to be doing.”

“I’m trying my best,” he whined as a response, juggling lazily with the book he was currently holding. “It’s not like we’re gonna find anything at this point… All this reading is making me kinda sleepy too…”

“Right, how reliable of you,” Yokoyama rolled her eyes, briefly taking a break to massage her temples. Were kids always this whiny? He wasn’t _that_ much younger, but it was still sort of irritating… or disappointing, if not that. If she would’ve been a teacher, she would’ve definitely made this boy stand out in the hallway, holding buckets of water. “Self-discipline is an admirable trait to have.”

“Ah… I would agree with that,” Natsume joined in, caressing the book’s spine softly. Kageyama shuddered a little.

“That’s kinda rich, coming from you…”

Pushing himself away from the bookshelf, he lifted his arms to stretch his back, tripping over a bunch of books he’d left on the floor in the same movement, crashing back into the furniture he’d been leaning against. The shelf wobbled, a couple of books slowly slipping towards the edge before landing on the floor one by one with a dull thud, one of them hitting the boy over the head, only to be caught by him soon after.

Fortunately, further disaster was avoided as Natsume steadied the shelf promptly.

“Do try to be more careful. Books are to be treasured, after all,” he flashed a polite smile.

Yokoyama let her hands drop to her sides, feeling like her headache had only worsened.

“Are you good…?”

“Yep, yep, I’m fine,” Kageyama replied quickly, presumably to get out of the scolding. “Chill, I’m pretty sure all the books are fine… probably. I caught this one anyway.”

“Just put it back…” Yokoyama waved her hand tiredly, slumping over the table. “Either that, or read it, I guess… But if you’re gonna help, please do it properly.”

“Yeah, sure!”

That answer was awfully quick… but then again, he was most likely just trying to play nice after that. Either way, she supposed it all worked out, so there really shouldn’t have been a reason for her to get grumpier…

Kageyama whistled, causing her to glance up from her defeated position.

“What…?”

“Hey, uh… C’mere for a sec. That might’ve been a pretty lucky trip.”

Natsume leaned over his shoulder to peek at the book he was holding as Yokoyama got out of her seat.

“Did you find something…?”

Kageyama held it out for her to see proudly.

At first glance, it just seemed like any other book - it appeared to have been written about a small island in Japan, and Yokoyama might’ve even dismissed it had Kageyama not stopped on the page he had.

A photograph of Komatsu decorated one of the pages, Yokoyama’s attention immediately focused on that. _Of course_ she was still curious about her… She was going to ask Kageyama several questions later on as well, but being able to find even more data could only be good.

She wasn’t sure how much the girl knew or how much she was involved in everything that went down behind the others’ backs, but hopefully she’d be able to figure it out soon.

Natsume glanced at the clock on the wall.

“It may be better if we left for now… I do wish to take a bath before I lie down today.”

Yokoyama flinched; she’d lost track of the time completely.

“Right… Kageyama-kun, could you bring that with you? We can look it over during nighttime.”

“Yeah, sure thing,” Kageyama shut the book for now, holding onto it. “Won’t it be bad if you go off on your own, though? I mean, you’re the one who set that rule, so people might complain if they see you by yourself…”

“I’ll find somebody I can take a bath with, then,” she replied simply, stretching after sitting in such a stiff position for so long. “You two can go together, right?”

“Naturally,” Natsume took a short bow before Kageyama could reply, earning a tiny look of suspicion from the other. In the end, though, Kageyama kept whatever complaints he had to himself, quickly regaining his carefree attitude from before.

“Don’t forget to thank me or karma will bite you in the ass later.”

“Don’t even joke about that,” Yokoyama rolled her eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> snek is fren


	10. Chapter 2, Daily Life - Tension

“Is this really necessary…?”

“Absolutely. Now quiet down.”

Natsume let out a soft sigh, but didn’t complain any longer; even someone as socially dense as him could tell that additional complaints on his part would probably just make the situation worse. He’d been handcuffed to one of the pipes in one of the corners of the room - even if it would’ve been just for the night, Yokoyama didn’t feel comfortable enough leaving him in anyone’s vicinity, much less in her own or Kageyama’s.

It was already nighttime - she poked her head out into the hallway just before time was up to make absolutely sure that Takahashi was still doing his job, pleased to see an incredibly grumpy, but at least compliant Akiyama accompanying him. They left as well once nighttime actually arrived, letting the girl feel at ease, if only temporarily.

 _Nobody_ would be stupid enough to kill somebody like this, right…? The culprit would be instantly obvious - while they hadn’t isolated the infirmary from anyone, as long as they were forced to walk around in pairs, the other half could put a halt to any kind of suspicious activity.

It was quite convenient.

Yokoyama’s fingers brushed across the spine of the book laid in her lap.

“Hey… Kageyama-kun-“

“What?”

“…What do you remember about Komatsu-san?”

Kageyama leaned back a little, a low humming sound escaping his lips as he pondered over the answer.

“I can’t help but be bothered by what she said,” Yokoyama bit her lip. “I couldn’t quite wrap my head around it. I just can’t figure out what she meant…”

“You’re not alone there… My guess is probably as good as yours,” Kageyama replied before his gaze settled on her once again. “I do know a few things, though… but most of them aren’t really things that I figured out.”

“You mean… your friend.”

“Yep! Hanamiya.”

“Ah, the young man with the spectacles not unlike mine,” Natsume chimed in. “I seem to recall you two getting along quite well previously as well.”

 _Of course_ something like that got Kageyama’s attention.

“Wait, really?”

“I’m not sure if you can trust Natsume-kun’s definition of ‘getting along’,” Yokoyama mused, Kageyama raising a brow at her.

“You should know, shouldn’t you? ‘Cause you were there too.”

“I- I had other things that I was occupied with at the moment,” Yokoyama cleared her throat. “I didn’t pay that much attention to you guys, so I wouldn’t know.”

“Oh… your investigation?”

“Yes,” she nodded her head immediately, wanting to end this conversation as quickly as possible. Natsume kept on talking, even without being prompted to.

“I just so happened to overhear quite an intimate conversation is all. I have come to realise that people are not usually too keen on sharing personal information,” he tilted his head slightly, “so, naturally, I assumed that you had gotten familiarized enough to talk about such things.”

Yokoyama gave Kageyama’s side a small jab before he could ask more questions.

“You can interrogate him tomorrow. This is more important right now.”

“It’s not like we have a time limit or anything,” Kageyama retorted, though he seemed more disappointed than upset. Yokoyama narrowed her eyes briefly.

“Not _yet_.”

She supposed that much was enough to get him to start taking the situation more seriously.

“’Kay, about what you asked…” he rubbed the back of his neck, back to being deep in thought, as though Natsume’s interruption hadn’t even taken place. “Before… she was a lot more hyper, I guess? Pretty sure she was a junkie.”

“That would explain the hangover-esque attitude…” Yokoyama grumbled. Kageyama gave her an uncertain smile.

“She kinda snapped that time too. We found some really weird notes in her room after she died. It was actually really vague, but… later on we figured out she was starting to remember bits and pieces of all the stuff we forgot about. Because of the, uh… pills and stuff.”

Yokoyama rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

“You don’t suppose that happened again, do you…?”

“What, her remembering the previous killing games and stuff?” Kageyama shrugged. “Dunno. You guys should have all your memories before you were put in here, so I can’t really think of anything else she could’ve recalled.”

Yokoyama clicked her tongue.

“There has to be something that makes her situation unique compared to ours… Otherwise she wouldn’t have acted like that. I don’t think the drugs had anything to do with that…”

Natsume seemed to be shuffling around a little; Yokoyama sent a silent glare in his direction. He wanted to ask about her own circumstances, didn’t he? She did have that outburst earlier… If Natsume was the one who was inquiring, though, she wasn’t even willing to consider answering him for a millisecond.

Kageyama was… Well, he was just a kid. She couldn’t possibly involve him.

“What else can you tell me?”

“Uhh, she was from an island?” Kageyama seemed to be having trouble recalling things. “She _really_ liked bothering Takahashi… or just anyone in general, maybe. She… wore that weird bell back then too.”

“Is… Is that it?”

“I dunno? She spoke in third person, I guess.”

“Very relevant, thank you,” Yokoyama rolled her eyes.

“Dude, you’re the one who asked.”

Well, perhaps they’d already spent too much time chatting.

“Let’s check this out before the sun rises,” Yokoyama declared, going right ahead and opening the book. It wasn’t unusual or anything in its appearance; while there were a couple of pictures scattered through, the rest of the information was plain old text, albeit written in a font quite large.

She wasn’t going to complain if it was going to take her less time to comb through it all.

“I hope you’re a fast reader. I don’t want to have to wait for you.”

“Chill, I’ll get by,” Kageyama scooted closer, so he could read it over her shoulder; a silent agreement was born between the two to ignore Natsume for the time being, who… actually appeared to be somewhat sad that he’d been left out of the reading session.

They could just fill him in later… Fortunately, he was obedient even with the harsh treatment he’d been receiving.

Yokoyama might’ve felt bad had he literally not attempted to murder somebody and get everyone else killed in the process.

Kageyama did indeed appear to be able to keep up with her, as she didn’t hear a single complaint while she turned page after page - either that, or he was simply skimming the pages like a grade schooler cramming for a test the next day. Regardless, she was soon much too immersed to even take a single look at him to make sure he was still paying attention; her hands started to sweat, her heart picking up the pace with each passing second.

It felt as though she’d just discovered a secret document that she wasn’t supposed to know about, and the adrenaline rush was the same she’d gotten each time she took the liberty of spying on somebody on their private property.

Could she even trust this, if it had been placed here by that cat…? According to Kageyama’s testimony, though - and what she’d seen so far -, it wasn’t likely that he would lie to them… She couldn’t even think of a motive that would lead him to lie about something like _this_ either. More than that… if this book really was to be believed, it did answer some of her own questions… though it also brought up quite a few new ones.

She had the inexplicable urge to grab someone by the collar and shake them, demanding answers… but seeing as how one of the people she could’ve turned to was out in the real world, and the other had gotten _killed_ , she did the next best thing she could think of; she stood up, marching over to Natsume, her fingers curling around his jacket.

He flashed a composed, polite smile.

“How may I help you?”

“Natsume-kun…” she hissed as she grit her teeth.

Kageyama appeared to be in too much of a shock to even notice what she was doing, so there was nobody to stop her right now.

“Why, oh why, if I may ask, did you think targeting someone so _valuable_ was a good idea, hm? Did you not care about the valuable information we’d be losing?”

“Technically speaking,” Natsume began, completely unfazed, “I was not the one who-“

“I know you’re not the one who killed him,” Yokoyama tightened her hold, becoming increasingly frustrated by the lack of an emotional reaction. “I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but the culprit is _dead_ , so I can’t exactly turn to them, now, can I?”

Kageyama finally pried her hands off.

“Smacking him around won’t do us any good…”

“I know that!” Yokoyama snapped, slapping his hand away, turning away so she at least couldn’t see the presumably disappointed look she must’ve been receiving.

She wanted to say that she wasn’t acting like herself, but… in the end, this was just what she was like: brash, hotheaded, and much too emotionally immature. She wanted to be seen as a responsible adult, as someone one could depend on with an eased mind, but maybe that just wasn’t possible in a situation like this one.

In the end, she was still just a child throwing a tantrum because she didn’t get what she’d wanted.

She felt like crying all of a sudden.

A hand touched the top of her head, and her breath stilled for a second.

“You… okay there?”

“…I hope that wasn’t a serious question.”

She scolded herself mentally as she got to her feet, taking a few steps back from a curiously observing Natsume.

“…Would you like to be filled in, Natsume-kun?” she asked, tone completely exhausted. Her attitude turned around completely; she was so, so desperate for any kind of lead, she was starting to feel like she was even willing to rely on him considerably for anything she wanted to know.

He was knowledgeable, at the very least. If he was _intelligent_ or not, she wasn’t sure just yet, but… maybe he could help make sense of the whole thing, if nothing else.

“That would be ideal, yes.”

Before that, though…

“Kageyama-kun, I… want to know if you think we can believe this.”

Kageyama seemed to hesitate.

“The book…?”

“Yeah…”

He plopped down onto the nearest bed yet again; Yokoyama simply sat back down onto the floor, having to need to steady herself as she felt as though she could fall over any second.

“Well… it’s not like I’ve really had any reasons to doubt the A.I. so far. It was like this before too…”

“Finding important information buried somewhere…?”

“Yep. I’m… not sure if any of it was this bad, though. It wasn’t this… descriptive, at least.”

“Oh, now I am quite curious,” Natsume’s eyes seemed to twinkle ever so slightly. “What might you be talking about?”

Yokoyama took a deep breath.

She was used to treating these sorts of things as mere data and statistics - she could be stoic enough to treat the matter seriously without getting emotional over it, usually -, but when it was all laid out in front of her in such a descriptive and detailed manner, she couldn’t help but feel sick.

She wouldn’t have thought that such a small island would have ties to the black market - the drug usage was no surprise, especially since the girl was an orphan and had been presumably allowed to walk around on her own, so she could’ve snatched up anything she wanted to, but to think that something like this was going on…

Human trafficking… Organ harvesting… She was sure she wouldn’t be able to bring the document back to the real world, but she had to investigate the place herself, or at least bring attention to it. Even if there was a chance it was simply a red herring, she wasn’t willing to risk it - justice was important, and no rumor could be overlooked, no matter how small.

Natsume was calm and composed while she talked, only nodding his head on occasion as a gesture for her to continue. Perhaps he was used to hearing about these sorts of things - either that, or he simply wasn’t the type to let many things weight him down. He did treat attempted murder awfully casually, after all.

“You are not suggesting that either Izumi-kun or Fujinomiya-san have anything to do with this, though, are you?” Natsume finally spoke up after a while, seemingly thinking the matter over             quite carefully. “Even if you found this here, it is possible it was only supposed to be used as a motive, and now that Komatsu-san has passed away, it has lost its use.”

“…No, that’s not it,” Yokoyama shook her head. “I don’t know about it being a motive, but I’m sure they had _some_ connections. Because… it says that Komatsu-san was sent here as payment for something.”

Natsume raised a brow.

“I see… I shall take that as confirmation for the time being, in that case.”

“…Y’know, I kinda doubt Izumi would’ve told us anything anyway, the more I think about it,” Kageyama said, glancing between the two briefly. “’Cause he wasn’t willing to talk about all the other stuff either, was he?”

“I’m… sure it would’ve worked if I’d been able to try more methods,” Yokoyama grumbled, still very much upset about the lost opportunity. “Every person has a limit as to how much pain they can handle.”

“…You wouldn’t have done that.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Guess not. I’m still sure of it, though.”

Natsume interrupted the conversation by subtly clearing his throat.

“I do not mean to ruin the atmosphere, but I do think it would be best if you two headed to bed soon. Even a small amount of sleep deprivation can have a significant effect on one’s focus and whatnot.”

He… wasn’t wrong there, frustrating as it was to admit. And there really wasn’t much else they could do right now either… Until they were stuck here, their hands were pretty much tied, concerning any real world events.

“I dunno how well I can sleep after reading something like that…” Kageyama let out a weak laugh, his comment disregarded by both of the other two.

While Natsume still seemed to be alert enough, he did look like he really wanted to nod off soon.

Yokoyama stood up, dusting off her clothes; her mind was still racing, but she did have to at least _try_ to get some rest, if nothing else. She wasn’t going to be useful enough without being able to think clearly.

Kageyama took it upon himself to turn off the lights, and Yokoyama lay on her back, staring up at the ceiling.

After what they just read, she kind of had an idea about what the girl must have been so upset about. It wasn’t like there was any way of asking her now, not for a while, but… she could understand it, in a way. She _was_ the only one, as far as Yokoyama was aware, who’d gotten forced into the whole situation against her will, wasn’t she?

Yeah… Yokoyama would’ve been lying if she’d said she hadn’t looked down on everyone else at the start. To throw one’s life away so easily stirred all kinds of feelings of anger and frustration inside of her, and as much as it hurt her pride, she knew denying it wasn’t going to lead her anywhere now.

Still… she gained new understanding of the situation, in a way. She couldn’t help her own feelings - those would just have to change over time -, but she could tell how narrow-minded her way of thinking had been. She kept thinking of the group in terms of her, then everyone else, in 2 separate categories, but _naturally_ the whole issue wasn’t that simple.

The world wasn’t black and white like that.

As an attorney, she should’ve known better. It was almost disgraceful to be so biased.

* * *

 

Morning came, for better or for worse. Yokoyama had a terrible headache, as she’d suspected she would. Smacking Natsume lightly as he inquired about why she was acting even grumpier than usual, she popped a painkiller she’d acquired from the infirmary into her mouth before she instructed the other two to put the handcuffs back on again.

She’d almost forgotten about that; she felt unusually scatterbrained already, and she didn’t like it in the slightest. She probably would’ve relied on Kageyama more to keep reminding her of certain things if she’d actually thought she’d be able to count on him in that regard.

Alas, she was pretty sure all of it would slip his mind.

She closed her eyes as she silently recounted everything she had to get to today.

First, she had to check up on everyone to make sure they were doing okay and that nobody was up to anything suspicious. She was done with the library for the time being - she wasn’t sure whether Mononeko would leave multiple hints in the same place, but for now she wanted to give the rest of the areas a careful look before… well, before another incident possibly occurred.

She wanted to avoid such a scenario no matter what, but it was still better to be safe than sorry.

She almost didn’t notice Aragaki gesturing for her to come over as they passed through the hallway, but before she could’ve done so, the monitors turned on for the second time that day.

The morning announcement had already played, so what was it this time? Yokoyama clicked her tongue in annoyance.

“You guys are already all awake, right? I gave you some time to get your asses out of bed, but if you fell back asleep again, it’s your loss if you won’t get to hear my amazing news!”

“Oh, great…” Yokoyama heard Kageyama mutter under his breath while Aragaki’s expression turned into a mildly irritated frown. Hayama, standing by the latter, flinched a bit at the exclamation, looking like she’d had enough of this whole thing plenty of time ago.

Then again, that was probably everyone else here… except maybe Natsume. Who knew what Natsume was thinking…

“A new motive has been implemented! I won’t tell you what it is just yet, though. Look forward to that in the evening, okay?”

A new motive…? What was the point of it, though, if they didn’t even know what it was? Surely, nobody would do anything drastic with such flimsy reasoning behind it…

Well, she still had to stay on guard regardless.

“In other news, the infirmary has been locked! I’m sure you guys will be _very_ grateful for that, since you probably don’t want a repeat of the last incident. I’m just so gracious, aren’t I?” the cat kept going on and on, causing Yokoyama to freeze with this particular part of the announcement.

That… Was that good or bad? It was certainly true that nobody would have any access to poisons and whatnot like this, but it also meant they might not be able to provide appropriate treatment to someone if they were in need of it… The storage did contain some bandages, but that was about it, as far as she could recall.

Natsume exhaled a disappointed sigh.

“Ah… that is a shame. If I had known this ahead of time, I would have gathered a supply of items I wished to make use of later.”

“I don’t want you anywhere near the medicine cabinet again, actually…” Yokoyama scowled.

As the monitors went black, she brushed some strands of hair out of her eyes, already kind of regretting moving from bed at all. Suddenly interacting with anything seemed like a possibly dangerous task, and she wanted to smack her head against a wall from the frustration of it.

After she waited for a few seconds to make sure Mononeko wasn’t going to appear again, Aragaki gave Hayama a small nudge, remaining just a step behind her with quite the leisure posture. It didn’t seem like _she_ wanted to talk after all.

“I… Uhm, good morning,” Hayama gave a small nod as some kind of greeting, fidgeting with her hands rather intensely. “I guess it’s n-not really that good though, h-haha…”

Yokoyama stared back silently for a moment before she realised she should probably return the greeting.

“…Good morning, yes. Did you need something?”

“I was… wondering if I could ask for a favor, actually,” Hayama swallowed nervously, hesitantly glancing at Yokoyama for a moment before lowering her gaze again. Yokoyama waited patiently; if she was desperate enough, she would spill it on its own. If she wouldn’t… then it most likely wasn’t important enough.

She paid the boys behind her no mind.

After a few more seconds of uncertainty, Hayama suddenly took a deep bow, her hat almost ending up on the floor in the process.

“I- I want you to give me something to do, p-please…!” she exclaimed, straightening up soon enough, presumably to stop her hat from just falling off. “I want to… be able to help, somehow. I’m… I’m not very smart, but- but I want to be given a task l-like Takahashi-kun.”

Yokoyama blinked.

“You… came to ask me for something like that?”

She received several consecutive nods.

As her gaze subtly shifted over to Aragaki, the latter shrugged.

“I’m not a part of this, if you’re wondering about that. But I suppose I’ll go along with anything that doesn’t sound idiotic.”

Huh… Maybe she really did underestimate the others; if they could make themselves useful, she was certainly going to appreciate that. Perhaps all they needed right now was a gentle push in the right direction…

She was starting to feel a bit more hopeful again, and though she had a feeling it wouldn’t last, she wanted to hold onto that for now.

“…Okay, I’ll see if I can find something you can do,” she nodded her head firmly, already turning over several options in her head. “I’d like to eat before that, but we can continue this discussion after breakfast.”

Hayama looked like she’d just been rid of an unbelievably huge burden.

“A-alright…! That’s fine, yes…”

Honestly, as long as it was something someone like Kageyama was capable of, she was sure Hayama would do just fine as well.

Natsume suddenly poked his head over Yokoyama’s shoulder.

“By the way, Aragaki-san, I have been wondering about something. You have been avoiding me since we have ended up here, and I have not yet received an opportunity to inquire about your reasons behind it.”

Aragaki’s face scrunched up slightly as though she’d bitten into a lemon, and she crossed her arms as she turned her head to the side, making a point not to look Natsume in the eye.

“You’re the last person I want to talk to right now.”

Yokoyama pushed Natsume back with a roll of her eyes to get him out of her personal space, but he continued nevertheless.

“Is it because of the manner in which I woke you up with? Because if that is the case, I really would prefer if you were clear about it. It would be quite beneficial for us all, after all, if we could work together,” he bowed his head slightly.

Kageyama looked from one to the other several times.

“What’s he talking about now…? Natsume, you didn’t do anything weird, did you?”

“Of course not,” Natsume adjusted his glasses, refuting it without hesitation. “I am rather used to physical contact with all kinds of people, so it was nothing unusual for me. I suppose I may have lingered for a bit too long, but… such muscular bodies are rare for me to come across, you see.”

Kageyama’s mouth fell open a little, his expression almost completely blank, and Yokoyama felt a shiver run down her spine.

Aragaki’s face turned beet red in the matter of seconds, and her mouth opened and closed several times before she could respond, sounding absolutely outraged.

“You- S-Shut your mouth this instant, you _peasant_! You and your… _repulsive_ hands…!”

She took a few steps back, yanking Hayama back by accident in the process.

“Guys, can’t we all just get along?”

“There is no need to worry, Kageyama-kun-“

Yokoyama’s headache hadn’t gone away yet.

“Breakfast. _Now._ ”

Grabbing onto the chain binding the 2 boys together, she yanked on it roughly as she walked ahead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thots,


	11. Chapter 2, Daily Life - The calm before the storm

Being in charge of a group came with a lot of stress and responsibilities - this much had been clear from the start, and Yokoyama figured she would grow accustomed enough to it sooner or later for better or for worse, so she could still find it in herself to maintain her commanding attitude. Despite her best efforts, though, she’d come to realise it wasn’t going to work in every single scenario. In fact… it wasn’t going to work most of the time.

It was the same as it had been in the outside world - she wasn’t so sure anymore why she’d been so stubborn about clinging to it. Perhaps she just needed more reassurance that she still had some control over everything.

As it turned out, she really didn’t.

Hayama’s situation had to be pushed aside momentarily, as a new obstacle had arisen. Yokoyama was willing to tolerate a bit of lateness - it was only natural in these circumstances -, but skipping breakfast was absolutely unacceptable. The breakfast meetings were necessary to confirm everyone was doing alright; skipping them was not only incredibly inconsiderate but an outright statement of a lack of willingness to cooperate with the others.

Well, at least one half of the pair appeared to be cooperative.

Sakurauchi was the furthest thing from violent, so she wasn’t going to be manhandling anyone anytime soon, but she stood by the door patiently, without budging an inch, making it just a tad easier to communicate with her unwilling partner.

Nakajima wasn’t going to be _convinced_ by force. He was easy enough to intimidate - enough to provide Yokoyama with more satisfaction than she would’ve been willing to admit -, but it didn’t sit well with her how fidgety and jumpy he was. He wasn’t like Hayama in that regard; he just seemed sort of sketchy, like he could snap at any moment.

Stress could do funny things to the brain.

Surely, the safest solution to the issue would be to get him to cooperate with everyone else of his own free will. Still, even if they had something to offer, she had no idea if he would even trust them enough to take their word for it.

“You just gonna stand there all day long…?” Kageyama finally broke the silence that had descended upon them after their first few attempts, leaning against the wall with a raised brow. “Dude, your legs will fall asleep after a while.”

Sakurauchi flashed a weak, apologetic smile.

“I do not see what is so unpleasant about dining in a group,” Natsume remarked, tapping his chin slowly, rhythmically. “I am truly bewildered, I must admit.”

“It’s… b-because you guys can’t b-be trusted, that’s all…” came the response, more of a mumble than anything as Nakajima stubbornly stared off to the side. He appeared to be more exhausted than anything; the previous day and night must’ve tired him out enough to barely have enough energy left to keep being such a pain in the neck. On the bright side, at least even he could tell that Sakurauchi wasn’t the most dangerous person around, so Yokoyama could rest assured she’d made the right choice splitting everyone up in such a way.

“…Well, you’re going to have to get over that sooner or later,” she let out a quiet huff. “The food isn’t going to be poisoned or anything. Things like this is precisely why this new system has been put in place.”

“Actually, technically speaking-“

“Or maybe _you’re_ the problem, Natsume-kun,” Yokoyama turned her head in the direction of the one who had just interrupted, skewering him with her gaze. “Kindly keep your input to yourself for the time being.”

It was less that it was distracting, and more that she doubted anything someone like Natsume had to say could smooth the situation over.

“Can’t we just… leave this be?” Sakurauchi suggested timidly, still trying to find a middle-ground between the opposing sides. “I’m still here, so… maybe it’ll be fine.”

“But it’s not fine,” Yokoyama sighed in an exasperated manner. “Listen- After what happened the last time, I don’t want to risk not being able to reach anybody. I know you’re trying to be nice, but being nice won’t be enough on its own to keep people safe.”

“…Why do you even care…? It’s… n-not like you’re friends or whatever with everyone here…” Nakajima shot her a suspicious look, to which she rolled her eyes.

“Because, smartass, for starters, even one person being killed puts everyone else at risk. And even aside from that…” she crossed her arms, “I care about justice. A lot. I despise people who think they can get away with these sorts of things.”

Sakurauchi still hadn’t given up.

“Then… maybe we can look for some kind of communication device? I don’t think anyone has their phone, but… we might find something in the storage.”

“Like a walkie-talkie or something?” Kageyama seemed to perk up. “That’d be pretty cool. Oi, Natsume, have you seen anything like that lying around?”

“Did you not previously state that my own commentary was not required?” Natsume tilted his head slightly, Yokoyama immediately yanking on the chain a little as though she was disciplining an unruly dog. “I cannot say I can recall anything, but it is not as if I have searched the entire room top-to-bottom. It is possible I might have missed something.”

“W-we can go look there, then…!” Sakurauchi latched onto the idea right away, obviously eager to end the conflict. “You won’t mind that, right, Yokoyama-san?”

“…I suppose it’s better than nothing,” Yokoyama let her shoulders slump forward slightly before shrugging in defeat. “Fine, we can meet up once again after you’re done looking, then.”

“You’re okay with that, right…?” Sakurauchi turned to Nakajima for confirmation, whose gaze was still very much fixated on the floor as he pouted ever so slightly.

“…H-hmph… If it’ll get these guys to s-stop being so annoying…”

“Right, that’s a plan, then,” Yokoyama finally felt a wave of relief wash over her. These were small steps, but they were still encouraging enough for the time being. She turned around, making eye contact with Kageyama. “Let’s go back to the others. They should still be in the kitchen.”

“If they haven’t gotten bored yet,” came the lighthearted response as the boy pushed himself away from the wall.

They’ve only been away for a few minutes, so Yokoyama felt doubtful about that, but, then again, she really couldn’t underestimate how many ridiculous things this situation could throw at her in a row.

She headed in the direction of the stairs.

The sight that welcomed her once she arrived gave her pause, and the temptation to just walk back out like she hadn’t seen anything was strong, incredibly so.

She couldn’t stand alcohol.

Akiyama was sitting on top of the counter, a half-empty bottle of… whatever… in his hands, that he occasionally took a swig of, face flushed, shirt unbuttoned. He _had_ been hanging around the bar for quite a lot of time; it really shouldn’t have been surprising that he’d snatched something.

Takahashi was slumped over said counter, bawling his eyes out - he’d gotten his own share as well, no doubt. Nobody here was underage, with the exception of a certain someone, so it wasn’t as if they were breaking any rules, but still…

Yokoyama’s face instinctively wrinkled at the smell.

“Don’t touch anything. You’re still a minor,” she narrowed her eyes at Kageyama who raised his hands defensively, looking completely innocent.

“I wasn’t going to… prolly.”

“No, you’re not going to, _period_ ,” she stated firmly.

Hayama was sprawled out on the floor - Yokoyama assumed the worst right away, still being a bit of a paranoid mess, but she quickly took note of her chest rising and falling in a peaceful manner, saving her from a possibly embarrassing freak out. God knows how she fell asleep so easily, but Aragaki didn’t seem to be too bothered by it, simply standing around as she stared off into the distance in an absentminded manner with unfocused eyes.

At least somebody could keep their calm…

“What… happened here?” Yokoyama finally managed to blurt out, grabbing Aragaki’s attention successfully enough.

“Boredom, I guess,” she responded, making a short, low, humming sound before she continued. “I don’t particularly care. I don’t drink.”

_Good._

“You okay there?” Kageyama peered at Takahashi curiously, receiving a loud sob in return.

“Of course not! Everything… Everything has gone to- Everything _sucks_ , you don’t understand!”

“He didn’t have that much to drink. His tolerance must be really low,” Aragaki remarked dryly, thoughtfully gazing at him from a safe distance. “I’m not that good at consoling people so I just left him be.”

“Dude, it’s chill- You don’t gotta be so torn up, y’know,” Kageyama swiftly slid onto a seat, proceeding to pat Takahashi on the back several times. “Stuff can be hard to deal with sometimes, but you’re still in one piece. That’s somethin’, right?”

“N-no, that’s not good enough…! I can’t even- I’m trying, but… but… I can’t do anything right…!”

Kageyama appeared to be intent on comforting him, Natsume curiously examining the bottle that had presumably been given to Takahashi in the meantime, muttering something under his breath. Yokoyama made sure to keep an eye on him for now.

“Fuckin’ sissy, can’t even shut up for a damn second…” Akiyama complained, his voice shifting in volume several times, as though he couldn’t quite decide whether he wanted to shout or just mumble. He looked like he could slip and fall to the floor any moment. “Shoulda stayed with your mama if ya were gonna bitch this much…”

Aragaki looked at her as though asking ‘What now?’, and Yokoyama pursed her lips.

Even if they _hadn’t_ been in the middle of a killing game, she would’ve been reluctant to leave a bunch of drunk people to their own devices, especially when one of them was pretty much a violent thug. He appeared to be pretty occupied with his drink for the time being, but she still wasn’t sure how long that’d last…

Come to think of it… everyone else was standing a considerable distance away. As long as they kept their voices low, this was a pretty good chance to have a private conversation with Aragaki for the first time.

Not that she had that much to talk about, but…

“You got quite upset with Akiyama earlier,” Aragaki spoke up herself in the end.

“…His existence riles me up,” Yokoyama puffed her cheeks slightly, her attitude just a bit more sour after recalling the incident. “I don’t like people like that. Hayama-san got more upset than me anyway, though, didn’t she?”

“Well, that shouldn’t be any surprise,” Aragaki shrugged her shoulders lightly. “She’s really stubborn deep down.”

“You’ve been… hanging out an awful lot, haven’t you?”

“By chance, that’s all. But… apparently I’m easy to talk to.”

Yokoyama flinched a little; yeah, _she_ probably wasn’t like that at all. Something else she’d rarely considered, and something that was most likely going to keep getting in her way over and over in the future.

“…She’s told me a lot of things, but I don’t really know how to respond to half of them,” Aragaki’s brows furrowed ever so slightly. “People are… hard to understand. Then again, I think some people here are desperate enough to listen to any kind of half-assed attempt at consolation.”

“But… you’re not.”

“…No, I guess not,” she lifted her gaze. “I didn’t… come here for that. I don’t really know if it’s a very good reason, but it’s also kind of hard to put my finger on it. I was just… hoping I could help some people, I think.”

She combed strands of her hair behind her ear, slowly and methodically.

“For the longest time ever, I didn’t really have anyone I could get along with. I could find things to pass the time with, but after a while I got… frustrated, I guess. And once you’re out of high school, you can’t really keep hiding behind escapism anymore. It… was a pretty bad time in my life.”

She let her hand drop to her side once again.

“One day, though… I… was biking home, and I was crossing this bridge, and… there was a girl, just standing there. She looked like she was kind of sick, and she was really close to the edge, so I stopped to warn her or something, and… she jumped. I caught her, though. Almost pulled a muscle from how sudden it was, but I managed anyway.”

She wasn’t even really looking at Yokoyama anymore.

“I think that moment shocked me back to reality more than anything else had. I didn’t… wanna end up like that. I wanted to find some kind of goal I could work towards.”

The story felt kind of heavy, but Yokoyama was sure Aragaki wouldn’t hold any kind of response against her, as she herself had stated she wasn’t very good at these kinds of talks. Did she open up like this because of everything that had gone down the previous day…? It wasn’t like Yokoyama had any way of knowing. Still, it… felt like she understood her a little better now.

She had rarely been confided in before, but it seemed to be happening more and more often lately.

“Is that why you decided to stick by Hayama-san for now?”

“…Maybe.”

That was more than likely as much as she was going to get out of her.

“…I don’t know how much you’ve figured out, but Izumi and Fujinomiya are pretty dangerous people,” Aragaki’s voice seemed to regain some of its stern edge. “I’ve heard them talk to their lackeys before, and I never managed to hear anything specific enough, but they’ve been obviously up to something shady from the start. And it’s not just about… this whole killing game.”

She seemed to hesitate a little before she continued.

“You’ve been talking to Kageyama-san really often. He… knows something, right? He’s completely different from the way he used to be. It’s… strange.”

Kageyama had declared her trustworthy enough, hadn’t he? And just based on this conversation, Yokoyama couldn’t deny that she’d gotten that same exact feeling. But… part of her was still feeling doubtful. The part that was skeptical of every single person she’d come across, the part that would always assume everyone was constantly keeping dark secrets from her…

It was persistent enough to stop her from taking the step forward.

She needed more time to think this over.

“…Let’s finish this discussion later.”

Aragaki seemed disappointed, but she didn’t press her more.

“Pardon my interruption,” Natsume spoke up, raising his voice a little since he couldn’t really drag Kageyama over on his own, “but should we not try to figure out what the new motive is? Or is that not a priority at the moment?”

“’s not like we can do anything about it,” Akiyama proclaimed before anyone else could respond, wiping his mouth sloppily. “Shit, man, I woulda ripped that fuckin’ cat to pieces already if it wasn’t hidin’ behind those damn screens!”

“We haven’t exactly been given any clues… I wouldn’t pay it too much mind if I were you,” Aragaki remarked. “Then again, that might be asking for too much. It _is_ you we’re talking about.”

“What, you pickin’ a fight, bitch!?” he raised his head at that, albeit not looking intimidating at all as he also slid onto the floor in that same movement, landing not so gracefully. Takahashi had been yanked forward with a startled yelp, Kageyama managing to catch the bottle they’d knocked off just in time before it could shatter on the floor. The latter let out a relieved sigh.

“Try not to cause too much of a commotion,” Yokoyama frowned, walking over to take the bottle from Kageyama’s hands, just for good measure. “The fact that the motive hasn’t been revealed yet just makes me think it’s something that takes time to occur.”

“Eh- Like what, poison or something?” Kageyama blinked, and Yokoyama shivered at the thought.

“It… could be a billion other things. Don’t jump straight to that. We’ve already eaten today, so it’ll just add unnecessary stress if we overthink that now.”

“Nakajima and Sakurauchi haven’t, though.”

“Speaking of which, should we not see how they are doing?” Natsume tilted his head. “Or would you like to wait a little longer?”

“Why are _you_ in such a hurry…?”

“Curiosity,” he replied simply, adjusting his glasses afterwards. “Is that a sin, perhaps? I am trying my best to integrate into the group to the best of my abilities, Kageyama-kun. I wish to be excited about progress.”

“I think it’s a little late for that…”

“I… don’t mind checking up on them,” Yokoyama nodded, ignoring the ongoing chatter. Nakajima was most likely going to get mad, but she couldn’t let that keep getting in everyone else’s way. Besides, this would be the last time it would happen if they could find some kind of communication device.

She turned to Aragaki.

“We’ll talk more later, if Hayama-san is still… unavailable. Keep an eye on these guys for me.”

Aragaki raised a brow, unimpressed by the request, but she nodded her head after a few seconds of silence, going back to silently thinking the same way she’d done so before their conversation.

She had more things to discuss with Kageyama on the way.

Dragging said person off with Natsume, Yokoyama closed the door behind them after they left, not quite heading towards the storage just yet, only taking a few steps forward before she stopped. There was nobody around, and Nakajima was probably going to turn back at the slightest noise and run far away, so they more than likely wouldn’t need to worry about any interruptions for a while…

She gave Kageyama’s side a nudge.

“Hey… You made Aragaki-san quite suspicious of you, you know that?”

“Well- Yeah, even I can tell that much,” he nodded his head slowly, not quite sure about what she was getting at. “Is that… bad? I doubt she’s gonna do anything about it _now_.”

Yokoyama hesitated.

He didn’t know she’d overheard them talk, did he? She wasn’t about to give that away, but, at the same time, it was hard to believe that he’d be sharp enough to catch onto such subtle hints.

“She can tell you know what’s going on. What do you want me to do about this? She’s just going to keep asking me over and over until you fix the mess you’ve gotten yourself into.”

“I know, I know…” he lifted his hands defensively. “I just… dunno what to do. It’s a pretty complicated situation. You wouldn’t get it…”

“Yes, yes, you’re privy to all kinds of special information that I have no clue about,” she huffed quietly before she continued. “You’re the one who decided to talk to her in the first place. If you didn’t want to get her involved, it’s far too late for that now, but even then, she honestly seems more capable than you so I have no idea what you’re being so reluctant about.”

She didn’t mean for it to come out so harsh, and her expression softened a moment later as she opened her mouth again to apologise - before she could say anything, though, Kageyama’s features settled into something much more serious than the mask of lightheartedness he usually wore.

“It’s not like that. I have… a lot of things that I’d want to say, but I just don’t know how to go about it,” he lifted a hand to rub the back of his neck. “She’s not really… the same person I became friends with, so I guess it’s kind of pointless, but… I have some things I want to apologise about, and I just haven’t worked up the courage to do that yet. I’m sorry, alright? That’s just how it is sometimes.”

His brows furrowed lightly as he stared off to the side - he really didn’t seem like the type to take a lot of things seriously, so a moment of such open sincerity without any kind of defense mechanism felt unusual, like he’d turned into a completely different person. The guilt was really starting to gnaw at her after that, so, clearing her throat, Yokoyama nervously averted her gaze.

She wasn’t sure if it was from the sudden whiplash, but she was starting to feel a tad lightheaded.

“I’m… sorry too. I didn’t mean to chew you out like that.”

Kageyama looked back at her with slight surprise before his face morphed into one of his usual grins.

“Eh, it’s all good. I know you’re a control freak.”

Grumbling under her breath, Yokoyama straightened her back.

“Just… make sure to think over what you want to do very carefully. You don’t want to change your mind when it’s already too late.”

“Pardon me, but is telling another person really such a huge issue?” Natsume chimed in - by now, Yokoyama was relatively used to him interrupting, so she didn’t even spare him a glance. “Surely, the others will discover the truth sooner or later on their own, even if you tell them nothing. I do not see why you would prefer to draw that out.”

“Because it’s more complicated than that, _Natsume-kun_. There are certain ways you’re supposed to approach certain topics to prevent people from getting the wrong idea, and this subject is especially delicate.”

“I don’t even really know who would believe it, to be honest…” Kageyama shoved his hands in his pockets, aimlessly shuffling with his feet. “Aragaki- Maybe, but I dunno about everyone else.”

“I could do without some of them knowing,” Yokoyama pinched the bridge of her nose, shaking her head slightly. “In… any case, let’s just focus on Aragaki-san for now. I’ll let Kageyama-kun handle it for the time being… but try not to procrastinate too much.”

“Yes, yes, I know-“

Yokoyama walked on ahead.

Opening the door to the storage, she poked her head inside - the room was still as dim as ever, but even then, she could tell there was nobody inside. It really wasn’t big enough for a person to hide, unless they were unusually small, and the only person like that here was…

She coughed awkwardly.

“Looks like they aren’t here… What now? Should we check their room…?”

“That does sound quite reasonable,” Natsume mused, “unless they have decided to search somewhere else.”

“Oh yeah, wasn’t there that weird shop-?”

The world seemed to suddenly tilt over, and Yokoyama found herself leaning against the wall, her shoulder aching somewhat from where she collided with it. The lightheadedness she’d felt before had returned, and her knees gradually got weaker and weaker.

She couldn’t get her eyes to focus properly.

She heard the usual sound of the monitors turning on - it was unnaturally fuzzy and muffled, though, like she was underwater while listening. She clutched her head with her free hand as she tried her best to regain her balance and whatnot to no avail.

“Ahem… It appears there’s been a teeny tiny accident!” Mononeko exclaimed, the voice just sharp enough to still be audible. “The motive was only supposed to start working in the evening… but I guess you guys are getting it early this time! Don’t worry, as long as you land on a relatively soft surface you should be juuuust fine!”

Yokoyama’s mouth opened and closed several times - no sound left her lips, and in fact, she felt as though making any kind of sound would take an immeasurable amount of effort. She slowly dropped to her knees, her senses cutting in and out, her vision repeatedly going black.

“Don’t mind the side effects for now, okay? I promise you they’ll all be gone by the time you wake up! Until then… sweet dreams, everyone!”

She landed face-first on the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> why do u always insist on adding alcohol crow


	12. Chapter 2, Deadly Life - Disappearance and Melancholy(?)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fuckin,,, referencing a show that was referencing another show, ur so meta crow, ur definitely not an embarrassing idiot

As she slowly regained consciousness, one of the first things she took notice of was her pounding headache. It was different from the usual though; it was as though she’d gotten whacked over the head and was currently recovering from the injury that had caused.

As she instinctively lifted her hands to cradle her head, she felt herself twitch in shock. Her fingers touched fabric instead of her hair. She sat up suddenly enough for a wave of dizziness to immediately wash over her, but she gritted her teeth as she felt her head all over. There was no mirror around, but even so, she could tell someone had wrapped bandages around her head. Incidentally, the source of the throbbing pain had gotten hidden from view in the process as well.

It felt kind of gross, to have someone invade her personal space like that, even if it had been for a good purpose.

She struggled to recall what had happened, but the events did come to her one by one after a while, slow as the process was. The reason why she’d passed out so suddenly… would that have anything to do with the new motive? Oh… that’s right, there was that announcement moments before it had happened.

Did she hit her head as she fell? It wasn’t an impossibility…

She bit her lip before taking notice of another somewhat alarming fact; she wasn’t out in the hallway anymore. In fact, it seemed like she’d been carried into her room, then dropped onto the floor right in the center. More than that, there didn’t seem to be anybody else around…

She clicked her tongue as she slowly got to her feet, making sure not to make any sudden movements anymore. She didn’t need to sprawl out all over again. Dragging herself over to the door, she felt a rush of relief when she was able to open it, and she continued on her way back to the lounge.

This really wasn’t much of a motive if it just caused everyone to pass out simultaneously, but the fact that she woke up in a different place was enough of an indicator of the opposite. It… wasn’t just her who’d fainted like that, was it? She strained her memory, but she couldn’t _quite_ remember. Still, even if it was just one person who was free to move around, that was already worrying…

She almost landed on her face again as she burst into the lounge.

The first thing she spotted was Natsume curled up in a ball, sleeping peacefully right next to one of the sofas. Kageyama was across said furniture, unconscious himself, an arm hanging off the side, the tips of his fingers just barely touching the floor.

It took several weaker shoves to rouse him from his slumber.

“Wassup…?” he mumbled with only half-open eyes, clearly not aware of what was going on. Yokoyama was much too exhausted to provide her usual annoyed response, though, so she simply tried her best to pull him up into a sitting position, receiving very little assistance.

“Get up. I need… I need to check up on the others.”

“Did you hit your head…?” Kageyama stared at her blankly once she was able to get him to look at her properly, and she let out a small sigh.

“Move now, talk later.”

Fortunately he didn’t resist much, and he stretched his back as he slid off the sofa, looking like he’d woken up from an incredibly comfortable nap. Yokoyama was almost envious.

She nudged Natsume with her foot, but she didn’t wait for him to wake up fully; she left that job to Kageyama as she turned around, heading in the direction of the kitchen this time, sending a halfhearted glance in the direction of the staircase. She should’ve checked to see if Sakurauchi and Nakajima were upstairs, but it was a bit too late for that now; she was going to have to go back after she was done with this area.

Opening the door, she only stuck her head inside at first, wary of anything dangerous. As it turned out, that was a good idea, as she was greeted with the sight of broken glass and spilt liquid covering a large section of the floor, leaving her no choice but to clumsily tiptoe around the hazard and hope not to trip anywhere nearby.

It was still relatively difficult to focus, but she tried her best.

Takahashi was… slumped over exactly where they’d left him. A quick glance over the counter confirmed Akiyama’s presence as well, alongside the bandages wrapped around _his_ head. His free hand had gotten patched up the same way too… apparently someone really had gone around to treat people’s injuries.

Yokoyama’s mind was racing.

In the corner was… Aragaki. She was lying dangerously close to the glass, and she’d more than likely obtained a few cuts from it as well, judging by the band-aids haphazardly stuck onto her cheeks and lower arms. Hayama, on the other hand… was nowhere to be found. The chain from Aragaki’s handcuff was broken, the other end of it gone completely; Yokoyama frowned with increasing nervousness and irritation at once.

So much for her seemingly foolproof plan…

Hopefully nothing had happened _yet_ … but then again, could she even dare to be hopeful after what went down the last time? She wasn’t even fully aware of the entire motive, for all she knew, and that fact was more frustrating than everything else at the moment.

God knows what these guys were capable of, if pushed far enough.

She didn’t wait for much longer; she made her way back to the staircase, ignoring Kageyama’s inquiries for the time being as she returned to the second floor. Little did she know, though, her search would turn up useless.

She went through every room, even opening the closets and checking any possible hiding places, but there was no sign of any of the missing 3. Well- They were probably on the first floor after all, then, weren’t they? That was what she guessed, at the very least.

She leaned against the wall briefly to catch her breath and steady herself once again.

Then the monitors turned on.

“A body has been discovered! Gather in the bath, now, would you? The trial won’t wait for you guys, nor will I!”

Yokoyama froze.

It took several moments for the announcement to sink in properly, and especially with how sudden and short it was, it almost didn’t even feel real. Even if this wasn’t the _real_ world, the concept of one of the others having been murdered wasn’t made much less disturbing by it. Especially since it wasn’t one of the perpetrators this time, unlike before…

She forced her legs to move, following the directions she’d been given.

The bath was split into two areas for men and women, but anyone could enter either side without consequences - if they weren’t caught by anyone else, that is. Right now, though, that kind of rule didn’t matter.

Surprisingly, Kageyama had waited for her to get back. Whether it was more reassuring or troublesome, Yokoyama couldn’t tell, but she chose to focus on neither, instead hurriedly going on her way along with the other two this time.

They ended up finding the body in the women’s bath, floating in the water, the upper half of its clothes caught on the edge to keep it somewhat afloat. Akiyama didn’t say much, only staring silently, and Aragaki grinded her teeth in frustration, looking like she was ready to strangle the first person her hands could reach.

Hayama had been murdered.

The silence that came next was heavy, incredibly so. Still, Yokoyama took a deep breath to gather as much of her composure as she could, not wanting to cloud her judgement even more than it already was.

Sakurauchi and Nakajima were still missing… Were they even alright? They couldn’t have just disappeared completely, surely…

Whoever jumped at the opportunity must’ve been _really_ impatient; barely any time has passed since the last trial… Was this what it was going to be like every day now? Even if… Even if it wasn’t _real_ , it didn’t feel right, and Yokoyama felt sick just by being involved in this at all.

She combed her fingers through her hair, her nails slowly digging into her scalp.

“…We need to find the other two.”

“You did look around upstairs, did you not?” Natsume raised a brow.

“There wasn’t anyone around,” she shook her head vehemently. “I left the doors open while I was looking as well, so I know I didn’t miss anyone. If they’re still here, they’ll be somewhere nearby.”

“Wouldn’t the announcement tell them where they need to go…?” Kageyama asked, his tone unusually careful. He seemed to be eyeing Aragaki quite intensely.

“Well, unless one of them has committed the crime,” Natsume’s lips curled into a cold smile. “They may be hiding somewhere in hopes of escaping suspicion, or Mononeko’s judgement.”

“Don’t be an idiot,” Kageyama immediately shot him down with a flat look. “Those two wouldn’t do that. And there are two of them anyway… Do you think one person just dragged the other one around or somethin’?”

“Anything is possible in such a curious place, if you ask me.”

“The girl might be strong enough to drag around a sleeping body, but I doubt that miniature beanpole could do anything,” Akiyama finally chimed in, not looking particularly concerned about the matter. “If both of them were awake, that’s up to debate, but if one of them offed ginger, they would’ve had to do it while that shitty motive was in effect.”

“Motive…? Oh, you mean the passing out thing,” Kageyama frowned slightly. “Dunno what was up with that. I was out like a log in a second.”

“If the murder took place while we were all unconscious, that means at least one more person must have been left awake,” Natsume rubbed his chin slowly. “That person could have then been free to walk around as they pleased without worrying about anyone spotting them.”

“Doesn’t that make the midget suspicious then?” Akiyama poked his thumb in Yokoyama’s direction; she felt a strange urge to deliver a kick to his delicates. “That, or Aragaki. You two are the only ones free to walk around, y’know, until we find the others.”

“It’s not Aragaki,” Kageyama stated firmly, in the same manner he’d defended her from Yokoyama before. Akiyama didn’t really seem to believe him, though.

“If you’ve got a crush or some shit, keep it in your fucking pants. She’s pretty violent; I’d have broken her arm by now if she wasn’t a girl.”

He cocked his head to the side as he continued.

“Why else would the chain be broken? Women get pretty vicious with each other. I bet she strangled her with the chains or something and ended up breaking them in the process.”

“Please keep your comments to yourself. The defense deems them unnecessary,” Yokoyama scowled, not liking that kind of attitude at all. Right, _maybe_ she wasn’t _really_ the type to get violent like that easily, _maybe_ she just enjoyed keeping up the illusion of it, but even so, she still had her limits. Categorizing him as an immature brat made it considerably easier to hold back, but she was already dangerously close to snapping.

“Dude, chill,” Kageyama joined in, shaking his head in mild disbelief. “You’re being a real ass right now.”

“Oh, cry me a fucking river,” Akiyama rolled his eyes. “You should’ve known something like this was going to happen. We can’t be all buddy-buddy with each other when we’re in the middle of a killing game.”

Aragaki seemed to have had enough; the insults thrown her way stung visibly, causing her to appear more hurt than outraged, but she still looked ready to unleash a lengthy rant as she opened her mouth. She could only manage a ‘Hey…!’, though, before the bystander who’d been completely silent up until now lifted Akiyama off the floor by his collar, shaking him around violently.

“How can you keep acting like that when somebody just died!? Don’t you value a person’s life at all!?”

“Fuck, Takahashi’s possessed,” Kageyama mumbled under his breath, blurting out the comment without thinking. He clearly didn’t mean for it to come out sounding so… _stupid_ , but Yokoyama immediately understood what he meant; Takahashi’s sudden burst of anger was strikingly similar to that of Hayama’s from before. His presence had felt so empty and lifeless before, but now he was shouting like that…

Akiyama managed to pry his hands off; Takahashi was strong, ridiculously so, but he obviously wasn’t used to physical confrontation of this kind at all. Akiyama looked like he was going to punch him in return, pulling his arm back at the last second to yank at the chains instead.

“And get this fucking thing off of me. Clearly, it didn’t fucking help, so I’m done playing along.”

Natsume crept past everyone with careful steps before leaning forward to wrap his arms around the corpse.

“I second the last request. It will be rather difficult to investigate if we are all still chained together.”

“Except for him,” Akiyama narrowed his eyes. “This psycho almost killed someone. I’d keep him on a leash if I were you.”

“That is not very nice to say.”

“The keys are in the storage, aren’t they? I’ll fuckin’ waltz over personally if I have to.”

Takahashi’s hands curled into fists, but his anger faded as suddenly as it had arrived, morphing into dejected disbelief instead.

“Is that… Is that it? You don’t even care, huh…”

“You guys came here to die, so you’ve no right to complain. I came here to win,” Akiyama declared, already walking towards the exit. “I won’t die so easily.”

Takahashi let himself be dragged outside, muttering something to himself in the process.

Maybe… it would be best if they could have a word after this- Wait, what was she thinking? There was no way in hell anything she could’ve said would’ve helped the guy. She wasn’t anyone’s babysitter here either… other people’s issues weren’t her business.

Aragaki’s words from earlier flashed in her mind, and she pursed her lips.

“You… okay there?” Kageyama addressed the girl in question as Natsume lifted Hayama’s body out of the water, laying it onto the floor.

Yokoyama couldn’t help but turn her head away from the sight.

“…Do you really want an honest answer to that?” Aragaki averted her gaze, crossing her arms. “Let’s investigate… We’ll run out of time again.”

“Or-“

“I doubt that’ll happen,” Yokoyama shook her head, cutting Kageyama off. “I checked the entire second floor, remember? We’ve got time. More than before, at least…”

“…Right,” Aragaki let out a sigh.

Yokoyama wasn’t really sure what would be the right thing to say in this situation.

“Let’s… split up and cover the rest of the first floor, then. I want to be sure we don’t miss anything.”

“Why don’t we investigate together, then?” Kageyama blinked, paying no mind to the occasional unintentional tug from Natsume. “If there are three of us checking everything, then it’s less likely we won’t notice, stuff, yeah?”

Aragaki opened and closed her mouth, and Yokoyama jabbed Kageyama in the side subtly as soon as realisation hit.

“Let her investigate on her own for now. You’re stuck here at the moment anyway…”

She probably needed some time alone.

“I- Yeah, alright…” Kageyama rubbed the back of his neck, awkwardly standing around. “That’s fair. Before that, though- You guys, uh… What happened to you?”

The question wasn’t clear at first at all.

“Huh-?”

“I mean, with your injuries,” Kageyama clarified, slowly letting his hands sink into his pockets. “Did I miss something…? Did we talk about this-?”

“No, we didn’t,” Yokoyama bit her lip; she’d almost forgotten to bring that up. “Actually, I… have no idea. I’m assuming I just hit my head when I fell, but by the time I woke up, I was already like this.”

“Like… bandaged up and all?”

“…Same here,” Aragaki tilted her head slightly. “I assumed it was from Natsume, but…”

“Sadly, I was unconscious like the rest of you,” came the response from said person. “I would have been incapable of treating any kind of injury.”

“Akiyama’s hand was like that too…” Kageyama’s brows furrowed slightly. “Do you think it was one of the other two?”

_Maybe._

“Let’s put that aside for now,” Yokoyama straightened her back. “It’s probably the least of our problems… and we won’t find an answer by just talking in circles.”

“Guess you’re not wrong there…”

“Aragaki-san,” Yokoyama addressed her this time around, maintaining eye contact, “can I trust you to check the storage and store for me? Specifically… I want to know if the keys to the handcuffs are still in the storage. I know Takahashi-kun and Akiyama-kun just went there, but…”

Aragaki nodded.

“I’ll tell you if I find anything,” she stated, taking a couple of steps back. She seemed to hesitate before letting her gaze settle on Kageyama temporarily. “Kageyama-san… I want to talk to you after the trial. Please don’t run off on me.”

And with that, she left.

Kageyama grimaced slightly.

“I get the feeling I know what that’s about…”

Yokoyama was about to ask him to clarify, but he shook his head.

“If it’s what I think it is, I promise I’ll tell you about it, ‘kay? For now…” he glanced at Natsume momentarily. “Are you done? We’ll need to take a look at the file too, if we can find it, but…”

Natsume dismissed his commentary with a wave of his hand.

“Do not rush me. This is a rather complicated process and I do not wish to make any mistakes.”

“Dude, there are only so many things you can do with a corpse.”

Yokoyama crouched down, peering at Natsume just in time to see him zip Hayama’s cardigan back up.

“Her body is covered in cuts,” he reported, glancing at the water momentarily. “I am assuming the blood came from her… unless her attacker was injured as well. Apart from that, she has a few bruises, especially around her back and shoulders. It seems like she was shoved into something rather hard.”

Yokoyama thought back to the broken glass in the kitchen.

“There were some around one of her wrists as well… from the handcuffs, I imagine,” Natsume mused. “She is still wearing the broken part, so it was a bit difficult to examine it properly… especially since I had to remove her bandages. Her hands were covered in scars as well… Ah, but they appeared to be quite old by now, so I highly doubt they are related to the case.”

Yokoyama felt chills for a moment.

“Did you find anything else…?”

“Rope burns,” Natsume’s fingers caressed the girl’s neck. “It seems she was strangled… I would assume that was the cause of death, then the body was dropped into the water afterwards to possibly make that harder to determine. Either way, she has not been dead long enough for it to hold any significance. Our culprit must be quite sad, to have their plans be thwarted by such an early discovery of the body.”

He dusted his hands off before adjusting his glasses.

“Now then, let us take a look at the file itself. I also wish to be freed from these restraints, if that is not a problem.”

“No,” was Yokoyama’s reply before she got to her feet once again. “Kageyama-kun- Please be a bit more patient. Aragaki-san will bring you the key later, I’m sure.”

“It’s a bit late for that,” Kageyama smiled wryly. “Eh, I already had to endure all this time stuck with this guy- I can take it if it’s only a bit longer.”

“Good,” Yokoyama exhaled softly.

As they left the bath, she turned her head to get a more careful look at the lounge. Nothing really seemed to be out of place - Kageyama and Natsume had been moved around while they were out, just like her, but that could’ve easily been due to Mononeko’s motive. She had to know more about it. She had to.

Picking up one of the files from the coffee table, she held everything in as her eyes quickly scanned the document.

_The victim is Hayama Momoko._

_The body was found in the bath, and the time of death is approximately sometime around noon._

_The victim's body is covered in cuts - though none of them are particularly deep -, alongside several bruises._

_The cause of death is suffocation._

Suffocation… Yes, Natsume must’ve been correct, in that case. Someone strangled her to death with some rope. Where did they get the rope from, though? The storage? That… only confirmed further that the suspect had to have been able to walk around.

Was it really one of the other two, then?

 _She_ hadn’t done anything, and Aragaki was out of the question… but it was hard to imagine either Nakajima or Sakurauchi committing murder. Did- Did one of the others somehow find a way around it, then?

…No, surely her theory was wrong.

She shook her head to snap herself back to reality.

Placing the file back down, she formed a sort of megaphone around her mouth with her hands; she didn’t really have any better ideas about how else she could summon that damn cat. If she was going to have to shout, then so be it.

“Hey, cat! Mononeko! You can hear me, can’t you? I demand answers!”

To her surprise, she actually got a reaction.

“Answers for what?” Mononeko immediately appeared, though only on the monitor closest to them this time around. She supposed it would’ve been confusing for the others to only hear one half of a conversation like this… “Getting needy already? I can’t pay that much attention to you guys, you know… You’re already adults, after all! You should be able to handle your own affairs!”

“Explain to me what the hell the motive was,” Yokoyama placed her hands on her hips. “I still haven’t received a clarification… and it won’t be a very fair trial if you withhold vital information like this, will it?”

“I guess that’s true…” Mononeko shrugged, squirming in his seat a little bit. “But shouldn’t you be able to figure it out on your own? Aren’t you an ace detective or something?”

“Attorney…” she made the correction, clicking her tongue.

“Yeah, yeah, same difference. Either way, I can’t tell you until the trial arrives. It won’t be very fair either if you know something the others don’t, and I don’t wanna have to repeat myself.”

“You-“

“Shoo, shoo, it won’t be that hard for you,” the cat gestured for her to walk away. “It’s like that one party game… yakuza, or whatever. I just put my own spin on it to make it more interesting.”

“Wh… What-?”

“I said shoo! You don’t have all day, geez…” he snapped, turning the screen off without another word. Yokoyama almost stomped her feet, but managed to calm herself down just in time.

“…He sure loves being a pain…”

“No kidding,” Kageyama whistled, brushing his fingers through his hair several times. “Party game… Uhh…”

“I am afraid I cannot help,” Natsume remarked. “I have never been invited to any parties, much less play any kind of game at one.”

“Dude, I think we all knew that.”

Yokoyama felt two pairs of eyes settle on her, and she cleared her throat several times, examining her boots with feigned interest.

“I… um, I’ve been to some… in college. Maybe. Yes. So- What’s that game he was talking about?”

If Kageyama noticed anything odd about her behavior, he didn’t mention it. He frowned more and more as he tried his best to search his memory, taking up various poses in the process. Once his face lit up with realisation, Yokoyama jumped a little at how suddenly he raised his voice.

“Oh, I know! It’s _Mafia_!”

“M-mafia!?”

“It’s the one that sounds closest to what he was talking about, at least,” Kageyama shrugged, shifting his weight from one foot to another. “I forgot how the official version goes… I’ve played it a few times, though.”

“A-aah, really…?”

“Basically,” he began gesticulating with his hands, “you’re supposed to split up the group. We, uh, never really had enough people to do it properly, but you’re supposed to pick multiple people to appoint as mafia members or whatever. We used to draw lots and stuff to decide who would end up as the killer.”

“The _what_!?”

“No, listen-“ Kageyama exhaled an exasperated sigh, tripping over his words for a moment. “Okay, so… in every turn, the players have to close their eyes, and the person who ended up as the killer will have to pick someone to kill. Oh, uh- There’s a narrator or whatever. They make sure nobody is breaking any rules.”

“Right…”

“In each turn, the players can choose one person to eliminate based on who they think the killer is, and the game ends when they get it right. Or if the killer manages to get away with it and kill everyone except one person, but we never got that far. I’m actually pretty good at guessing the culprit.”

Yokoyama blinked several times before lifting her hands to massage her temples.

“How does that have anything to do with the motive…?”

“Uh, like… I guess it means someone else really had been left awake…?”

“…Yeah, well, we guessed as much already… Maybe we’re missing a piece of the puzzle or something,” she huffed. They really would have to wait for the trial to get an explanation, apparently…

“I mean… a confirmation is _nice_.”

He was trying _really_ hard to be positive, wasn’t he?

“Let’s go take a look at the kitchen,” Yokoyama walked ahead, trying her hardest to be patient.

It didn’t seem like anyone had messed with the scene; it looked pretty much the same as it had when she arrived the first time. For better or for worse, that also meant the glass shards were still scattered around, and she had to tiptoe over them like some sort of clumsy ballerina as she approached one of the shelves.

From what she could tell, the bottles that had been broken were placed on that particular shelf before. Someone must’ve collided with it and knocked them off in the process. There were also quite a few stains of blood on the floor, most of them dry - that wasn’t really any surprise. It would’ve been a miracle not to get cut by one of these for someone who was around when they shattered.

“Did they kill Hayama here and then drag her body away…?” Kageyama asked, possibly mostly to himself, but Yokoyama felt obligated to answer.

“I… actually don’t think so. But I can’t answer you just yet.”

“Why, what are _you_ thinking of…?”

“Oh, you’ll see…”

They probably still had time to check _there_ , right? They did spend quite a while messing around, but-

“ _Ahem_!”

“Oh my god,” Yokoyama groaned, lifting her head at the familiar voice. “Don’t tell me the time got cut short again.”

She was greeted by the sight of Mononeko as soon as she got a look at one of the monitors.

“I was going to give you guys more time, buuut… it seems like a few _certain someones_ have gone missing… That’s no good, you know! You can’t be inconveniencing me like that! I can’t even punish you if I can’t find you, darn it!”

That- Was he talking about Sakurauchi and Nakajima…? Did they _really_ disappear-? Well… there weren’t any exits around, but… if they were in a program…

“I’ve decided to punish the rest of you in their place instead!” Mononeko cackled, taking up a more comfortable pose. “The old ‘punish the innocents so the troublemakers get shunned’ technique is quite popular with teachers. I’ve grown to like it! Sooo… I better see the rest of you gather in the lounge as soon as possible!”

“Wait, they’re _actually_ gone?” Kageyama echoed Yokoyama’s thoughts, looking pretty puzzled himself. “What the hell…? Where could they have even gone?”

“Perhaps…” Natsume took his glasses off momentarily to polish them, “they have found a way out, unlike the rest of us. I recall Sakurauchi-san being quite skilled with computers.”

Kageyama looked from one to another, incredibly confused.

“I mean, I’d like that to be true…”

“But we can’t know for sure just yet. Don’t get your hopes up,” Yokoyama shot him down bluntly; it wasn’t as if she _didn’t_ want a scenario like that to happen, but at the same time, it sounded too good to be true. She didn’t want to have to deal with the disappointment afterwards.

She searched for Aragaki with her eyes after they rushed out of the kitchen, and she managed to calm down a little once she spotted her. She didn’t seem… _nervous_ , which was good - she probably managed to find at least _something_ -, but she did maintain and air of tension around her that was a bit hard to endure. Then again, that shouldn’t have been anything surprising.

She started talking as soon as she was in earshot.

“The keys were all there- Here, I brought Kageyama-san’s,” she handed it over; the handcuffs and the keys belonging to them had each been numbered, so it was quite easy to tell which one opened which. She seemed to have removed the one that had been stuck on her until now. “The store was clear, but I’m sure the storage was involved. There was some blood on the floor… and I found a coil of rope that was stained in blood as well. It was a bit hard to see in the dark, but I’m sure of it.”

She continued after taking a breath - she was talking with the shortest of pauses, trying to get in as many words as possible before Mononeko would inevitably whisk them away to start the trial.

“Takahashi-san was there with me, so he can confirm everything I found. As for Nakajima and Sakurauchi-san… they really seem to have gone missing.”

“We managed to get a pretty good look around, luckily,” Kageyama said, shuffling with his feet a little. “You, uh… gonna be aight?”

“…We’ll see. I just want to figure out who’s behind this right now. I… need to.”

Well, yeah. They all had to.

Aragaki, though… She seemed a lot more determined than everyone else. Whether she wanted to get revenge, or if she just needed to solve the case to feel at peace, Yokoyama couldn’t have known… but then again, it really wasn’t any of her business. Feelings like that were much too personal, and the one they belonged to would surely shield them from outside view until the right time arrived.

Yokoyama closed her eyes as she got to organizing her thoughts, vaguely registering the rest of the group arriving soon enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i pwomise the whole "nyuhuhu the ch2 victim gets dropped into a body of water" pattern isnt on purpose im just ahjkfdj i realised it too late and now im suffering  
> "why are ur kids so violent crow" im sorry i dont know how to write drama i just make people fight each other constantly ahskfhdjk


	13. Chapter 2, Class Trial

“Are we really going to do this with 2 people missing…?”

Kageyama didn’t seem like he was expecting much of a response to that, but Yokoyama let out a small huff anyway.

“It’s not like we have much of a choice, now, is it?”

She took a look around the room as she spoke; it wasn’t as if examining the place further was going to magically pop the missing ones into existence, but she still had a hard time believing they vanished without a trace. Still, Mononeko really had no idea where they’d gone, from what she could tell, so there was no point pestering _him_ … and the others would’ve said something by now if they’d had any ideas.

“No, no, no! No talking about that! I’m going to get all upset again if I think about it!” Mononeko exclaimed, thrashing around like a toddler throwing a tantrum. “I’ll punish them _reaaal_ good as soon as they come back…”

“One of those 2 could be the culprit,” Aragaki crossed her arms, not really willing to drop the subject yet. She looked like she was ready to go off on a tangent and was trying to hold it in. “What are we going to do if that does end up being the case?”

“Well, then- You can just discuss that when the time is right for it!”

“I won’t accept that kind of answer,” she narrowed her eyes. “It won’t make for a very fair trial if not everyone is present for it.”

“…I think we can figure it out on our own anyway, though,” Yokoyama stated, straightening her back. She felt several eyes settle on her. “That is, if the motive gets cleared up properly. I have… some vague ideas of my own.”

“Oh yeah, the motive!” Akiyama slammed his hands down on his podium. “What the _fuck_ was up with that?”

“That is a rather curious topic…” Natsume tilted his head slightly; his hands had been cuffed behind his back after Kageyama was separated from him, and while he did seem somewhat disappointed about it, he didn’t really fight back or anything. “Everyone seems to have lost their consciousness for a short period of time, correct?”

“Everyone except the culprit, at least,” Kageyama let out a sigh.

“…And the victim, if I’m right,” Yokoyama corrected him after a short pause. “The cat said he would explain it, didn’t he?”

“If you address me properly-“

“Yes, yes, get to it, please,” she gestured with her hand in an annoyed manner, regarding him as nothing more than a pest for the time being. It really was for the better that he didn’t get too involved in the discussion parts of the trial.

After a few moments of sulking on his part, Mononeko cleared his throat.

“I did promise that, _perhaps_. Purr-haps. But I’m only going to explain it once, okay? So if any of you are hard of hearing you’ll have to just make do with what you get, I’m afraid!”

The footage on the screens changed to some kind of presentation, each slide illustrating points of Mononeko’s explanation with simple geometric shapes; it looked way more professional than it deserved to.

“The motive was going to last longer, but alas, one of you was way too eager to get right to the murdering. Not that I mind, though!”

Yokoyama’s eye twitched.

“I figured we could make this more entertaining than the first motive had been, since you guys didn’t really make good use of it back then! So, every day, everyone except for 2 people would fall asleep… and then those 2 would have the chance to kill each other without any interruptions!”

“It really was 2 people then…” Yokoyama let her arms drop to her sides; good. Finally she wouldn’t have to keep stressing over that.

“But why would one of them be Hayama?” Kageyama recalled her previous statement with a blank expression, prompting some brief and faint exasperation.

“You were there when we investigated the kitchen, weren’t you, Kageyama-kun? As well as when Natsume-kun reported his findings about the body…”

“I had stated that she had been shoved into something, I believe,” Natsume chimed in. “Thinking back to her original position and the state of that area, it may very well had been those shelves in the kitchen.”

“The killer wouldn’t have had a reason to shove her like that if she hadn’t been in a state to fight back,” Yokoyama continued, glancing back at Mononeko for a moment.

“Well, of course Hayama-nyan was awake! I didn’t want any of you to start cheating and killing all the sleeping ones, so I made it a point not to allow that,” the robot struck a pose. “Aren’t I just the coolest game master ever? If you’d have been a little more patient, you all would’ve been able to watch a cute little tutorial video I’d made for your turns! Too bad that didn’t happen, huh?”

“…Moving on,” she clicked her tongue, “I don’t think we can narrow down the suspect list just yet, so let’s ignore that for now. Alibis are out of the question for obvious reasons…”

Someone who’d been worryingly quiet until now spoke up with a slightly trembling voice.

“It wasn’t… Aragaki-san, was it?”

The girl’s head whipped around to stare at Takahashi; he didn’t really look scared or anything, but for one reason or another, he seemed even gloomier than usual. That was… only natural, in these circumstances, but, at the same time, he was one of the last people Yokoyama was expecting to start accusing others.

“Oh?” Aragaki’s voice sounded almost too calm; she must’ve been quite offended by the accusation, but she was still trying to keep her cool for Takahashi’s sake. Whether or not it was working was another question… “Why do you say that?”

“Because… Because why else would the handcuffs be broken? And… you’re the only one who could’ve dragged her out of the kitchen…!”

“Yokoyama had her hands free too, didn’t she?” Akiyama cracked his neck, obviously enjoying getting to accuse her for a change. “You guys would be the prime suspects then. Good luck digging yourself out of that.”

“Hold on- Let’s not jump to conclusions so soon, ‘kay?” Kageyama interjected, not wanting this kind of argument to go on for too long. “There’s no reason to assume it was one of those 2 just because they were free. The culprit could just as easily be trying to frame them.”

“I woke up in a slightly different spot than I had passed out in… and so had Kageyama-kun and Yokoyama-san,” Natsume scanned the room subtly. “Not to mention the fact that some people appear to have had some of their injuries treated while they were unconscious. I would actually like to propose the idea that those actions had been a diversion to spread out suspicion just a little better.”

“Y-yeah, see? There are way too many variables in this to start accusing people so early.”

“It’ll become obvious enough who could’ve committed the crime once the circumstances around it are cleared up,” Yokoyama began steering the discussion in a better direction once again. “Let’s try to put together what happened during the time we were unconscious.”

“So… she was shoved into the shelf and got injured because of it… then the culprit chased her into the bath and drowned her in the water…!” Takahashi concluded, immediately refuted by Aragaki.

“The file specifically says she was suffocated, not drowned, Takahashi…- _san_.”

“Wait, there’s a difference?” Kageyama blinked. “It’s just lack of oxygen either way…”

“Technically speaking, they refer to different things,” Natsume said, trying his best to adjust his glasses without the use of his hands. “But aside from that, I can assure you she had been strangled to death. The culprit was careful not to bruise her neck too heavily to try to hide that, but unfortunately for them it was rather simple to figure out with a trained eye.”

“Oh, so… the bath was just a diversion then.”

“More than likely.”

“Are we going to talk about how the handcuffs were broken? Because I think that’s just a _little_ more important,” Akiyama tapped his foot impatiently.

“They didn’t look all that sturdy to begin with… though I’m not really sure how it could be done without the use of a tool,” Aragaki furrowed her brows, only for Kageyama to snap his fingers, as though remembering something.

“Oh, wait… The chain had broken off right around the part that would’ve connected to the cuff around Hayama’s wrist, yeah? That should be easy enough then! I almost forgot!”

“Forgot what-?”

“I watched a video about it a long time ago,” he gestured with his hands as he talked, as though that was going to make it easier to envision what he intended - his hand movements weren’t all that clear, though. “I never really tried it, but it’s a pretty neat trick. You’re supposed to place pressure on the metal by twisting it like _this_ and-“

“ _Oh_. Oh, I know what you’re talking about…” Yokoyama pinched the bridge of her nose, sort of disappointed in herself that it had managed to slip her mind for this long. “I’ve never actually seen somebody do it before… The ones I’ve seen used couldn’t be broken like that.”

“If Hayama knew about that, she could’ve broken it herself… especially since she knew someone might try to kill her due to the motive,” Kageyama suggested, his eyes lighting up soon. “Oh! If she broke it herself, that would prove Aragaki couldn’t have been the culprit!”

“E-eeh, how come?” Takahashi shifted around nervously, visibly regretting speaking up earlier.

“Unless you have some kind of tool, you need to use both parts of the handcuffs for it,” Yokoyama explained, crossing her arms. “It’s a little difficult to do even when you have very steady hands - you’ll probably have to retry a few times before it works -, but it would be almost impossible to attempt it with an unwilling participant.”

“Aragaki still could’ve broken it herself after offing her, y’know,” Akiyama raised a brow, Kageyama’s shoulders lowering in mild disappointment.

“I’m almost certain that wasn’t the case,” Yokoyama shook her head. “The events that transpired after Hayama-san left the kitchen wouldn’t make sense otherwise.”

“She left the kitchen? What, she just waltzed over to the bath and dove right into it, is that what you’re suggesting?”

“I’m suggesting she was chased outside, Akiyama-kun,” she pursed her lips. “Aragaki-san told me she found bloodstains in the storage with Takahashi-kun. Aragaki-san herself has no injuries aside from a few smaller cuts, as far as I’m aware, and she wouldn’t have been so eager about offering the evidence herself had she been the killer.

“That was probably from Natsume, wasn’t it? The guy must’ve bled everywhere when he got stuffed in there before the first trial.”

“No, that… wasn’t from Natsume-kun,” Takahashi shook his head slowly, closing his eyes for a moment. “Because I… s-stepped in it. So… yeah, it wasn’t Aragaki-san after all. I’m sorry.”

Aragaki’s expression softened just a tiny bit.

“The blood was definitely fresh, and nobody here is injured enough to belong to them. There was a _lot_.”

“What about Yokoyama’s head?” Akiyama persisted stubbornly, shot down almost immediately.

“It’s just a bump, there’s no blood,” Yokoyama rolled her eyes. “Trust me, you’d be able to tell if I had bled that much from a head wound. There’s no blood whatsoever on my bandages, is there?”

“…Fine, whatever,” he clicked his tongue.

“What about the bloody rope, though…?” Takahashi fidgeted.

“I would like to propose the idea that it was used as an aid to keep the victim still during strangulation,” Natsume said. “Since her hands were bandaged up to begin with, it wouldn’t have left any burns.”

“So we can conclude that Hayama-san had gone to the storage,” Yokoyama continued. “If Aragaki-san was the culprit, she would’ve had no reason to drag her all the way there… and the keys were being stored there too. If the cuffs hadn’t been broken in the kitchen, she could’ve simply used the key to unlock it.”

“Yes, so it’s not Aragaki!” Kageyama declared, finally victorious.

“I think,” Yokoyama’s gaze slowly slid past everyone, “the culprit really is someone in here. And I think the fact that the body was dragged so far from the kitchen was simply another red herring to make everyone think it was either me or Aragaki-san.”

“What makes you think it wasn’t Nakajima or Sakurauchi-san?” Aragaki met her eyes.

“…This is just speculation on my part, so I suppose it might not be convincing enough,” Yokoyama sighed, “but I really think the cat would be making it into a bigger deal if he couldn’t execute the culprit.”

“Not that I’m trying to object or anything…” Kageyama spoke up, “but how would somebody walk around with another person stuck to them…?”

“Drag them around or something, duh,” Akiyama shrugged his shoulders. “Does shit like that really matter? I’m pretty sure most people here are capable of doing that much.”

Aragaki rubbed her chin.

“I wonder if there was another way to get the handcuffs off temporarily…”

“Well, none of the others were broken,” Kageyama stared back obliviously. “Uh… Any ideas?”

Of course, there was only silence.

Yokoyama hadn’t managed to figure anything out just yet either. If she had, that sure would’ve made zeroing in on her target easier…

What if she was wrong, and the culprit really was one of the missing pair? It was possible Mononeko was just trying to manipulate her into drawing the wrong conclusion… or something. The first time she’d done this she’d felt confident enough, but this time around, she wasn’t quite there. She felt a familiar rush of adrenaline; she wasn’t going to get it wrong… Of course not…

Nobody was forcing them to rush into anything, so… if worst came to worst, she could just try to get somebody to blurt or something they hadn’t intended to that’d give them away. Not that she had ever been good at that… as much as she wanted to deny it, so she _was_ hoping it wouldn’t have to come to that.

It was an embarrassing thought, but she really had been overestimating her own abilities.

“…Did anyone go to the storage at any point?” Yokoyama asked, glancing at everyone in the room. They all had been in pairs, and one person would’ve had no reason to cover for the other half. “Sakurauchi-san and Nakajima-kun were supposed to go there earlier… but I checked it right before the motive took effect with Kageyama-kun and Natsume-kun. I’m sure I would’ve noticed if they’d taken any of the keys _then_ …”

“We couldn’t find them anywhere around the first floor, right?” Kageyama’s face scrunched up slightly as he tried to remember. “So they were either already gone by then, or they were somewhere on the second floor.”

“That’s even less reason to believe it was one of them, then,” Yokoyama exhaled a sigh of relief.

“…Hypothetically, if you could find a way to remove the handcuffs somehow, you could put them back on if you just had the key,” Natsume hummed. “And if you could just get to the storage before anyone else, you could return the key before anyone else saw that it was missing… As I recall, the ones who visited the storage first after the murder were…”

Takahashi stiffened.

“It wasn’t me…! It… really wasn’t me, I promise.”

“Well, it wasn’t me either,” Akiyama scoffed.

“You guys went together though, didn’t you? So you’d know if one of you had made any suspicious moves,” Kageyama leaned on his podium with curiosity. “So, did any of you notice anything?”

“I wouldn’t get my hopes up like that, though…” Yokoyama half-muttered.

She really wasn’t sure if either of the two was observant enough for this.

Actually… Yeah, they definitely weren’t.

Takahashi fumbled around with his words.

“I… don’t really know, uhm…”

“I’m pretty fucking sure you’d know about it by now if we’d have seen something like that,” Akiyama let out an exasperated sigh. “I can’t speak for this guy here, but I’m not an idiot.”

Yokoyama frowned more and more as she racked her brain for the answer; was there _anything_ she’d missed? When it came to people in this room, she could rule out everyone else aside from these two, just based on her personal feelings, even if she wasn’t supposed to base assumptions on them… but was there any way she could definitely narrow it down to just one person?

She automatically found herself looking to Kageyama for an answer.

“Huh?” she received a blank stare, and she briefly combed her fingers through her hair.

“What do you think? Have… _you_ noticed anything strange?”

“I’m… _trying_ to think, but…”

Figures…

Aragaki bit her lip; she appeared to be staring at something rather intently for a good few seconds before she shook her head subtly, mumbling under her breath.

“It doesn’t fit…”

Kageyama, of course, immediately leaned over as soon as he picked up on it.

“Whoa, hey, if you’ve got something, that’d be pretty great. We’re kind of at a loss here.”

She didn’t provide a response straight away, instead presumably trying to settle something in her head first, but she soon let out a deep sigh.

“I’m not just accusing you out of spite, but,” she looked at Akiyama, “I just thought it was weird that you had your hand bandaged up like that. It’s not as if you hurt it before.”

“I landed on it when I fell, smartass,” the person in question rolled his eyes. “What are you implying by that anyway? This wasn’t the hand I had the cuff around, you know.”

“ _Yes_ , that’s why I said it doesn’t fit,” she hissed back. “I don’t need a lecture.”

“Eeh- Was it on the wrong hand?” Kageyama questioned, grabbing everyone’s attention. “I could’ve sworn it was on the same one. Or- Was it…?”

After a few moments of silence, Yokoyama gripped onto the podium a little tighter.

“ _Kageyama-kun_ , if you’re going to contribute to the discussion, please make sure what you’re going to say is absolutely, _one hundred percent correct_ ,” she made sure to emphasize the last part, practically drilling a hole into him with such an intense stare. “If you’re going to second guess yourself like that-“

“I- I’m not second guessing myself, that’s not it,” he shook his head in a flustered manner, starting to frown more and more. “It’s more like… somehow, now that I’m trying to remember, it feels like I’ve seen it on both hands somehow…? But that couldn’t be it, right?”

Yokoyama’s head whipped around, startling her next target slightly.

“Takahashi-kun, can you verify that? Or anyone else, for that matter?”

Takahashi swallowed nervously; he was clearly hesitant to speak up again after his first attempt, much less sure of himself now.

“Well- it had to be removed for the bath and whatnot…”

“That’s not what’s important right now,” Yokoyama tried to press him harder. “Can you remember if it changed hands during the time period the motive was taking place?”

Takahashi stiffened, but before he could reply Akiyama had already started mouthing off.

“Is that _really_ what we’re focusing on right now? Give me a break… Like it’s important at all.”

“Oh, it’s very important,” Yokoyama cocked her head to the side. “There’s only one method I can think of that would let someone slip the handcuffs off without having the key, and coincidentally, you’re the only person in this room it could apply to.”

“…If that’s the case, even if Takahashi-san can’t remember, that would still make this guy the most likely suspect,” Aragaki crossed her arms the way she had at the start of the trial; Akiyama swore under his breath.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake-“

“I think… Yokoyama-san might be right,” Takahashi cut him off, taking a deep breath before he continued. “No, I’m… sure of it. I didn’t realise it up until now, but thinking it over, the hands were definitely switched.”

“Hey, hey, I might be able to back that up too,” Kageyama proudly puffed out his chest. “If Takahashi says so, I’m even more sure of it now.”

“If you were to dislocate your thumb, you could’ve slipped the cuff off, killed Hayama-san, then grabbed the key and put it on again,” Yokoyama explained, narrowing her eyes. “For a thug like you, that couldn’t have possibly been much of a challenge, especially not in a situation like this one.”

“So it was you after all!” Aragaki’s hand was caught by Kageyama rushing to her side before she could grab the boy and start shaking him or something, but she didn’t let that stop her from raising her voice at least. “And yet you were accusing people left and right just like that, _huh_? It’s like you’re asking me to punch you.”

“Let’s not do that,” Kageyama attempted to calm her down carefully, quickly letting go and standing between the two as soon as Akiyama seemed like he might retaliate. “Dude, chill- Beating each other up won’t solve anything.”

_He might actually hit her this time._

“You’re talking to a brick wall there, Kageyama-kun,” Yokoyama called out from behind. “He won’t listen to you. Especially not if he really is the one who killed Hayama-san.”

“You haven’t even proved that yet!” Akiyama gritted his teeth. “Is that how this is going to go? Accuse me just ‘cause you feel like it?”

“Well, I’d like to hear it if you have any evidence to defend yourself with!” Yokoyama snapped. “You’re going to argue with facts if you want your point to be taken seriously. That’s how the real world works.”

“You’re the one who went to the storage with Takahashi-san as soon as the body was discovered!” Aragaki tried to step past Kageyama, but he stubbornly stood in her way. “You could’ve returned the key then; isn’t that right? Besides, you’re the only person here messed up enough to kill somebody just like that! Always talking down to everyone and acting like you can just do whatever you want… People like you piss me the hell off!”

She grabbed onto the back of Kageyama’s jacket at the lack of a better option, gripping it tightly with shaking hands.

“What makes you think you have the right to take someone’s life like that, huh!? Hayama-san could’ve been okay- She _would’ve_ been okay! She would’ve been okay if you’d have just let me do my job, you- miserable excuse for a human being…!”

Despite how composed she’d been acting up until now considering the situation, she seemed to fall apart more and more as she went on, frustrated to no end. It kind of _hurt_ , listening to her go off like that- Yokoyama’s hands curled into fists as she reminded herself over and over that it wasn’t really _real_ , that she couldn’t let these things affect her like that. If she let her emotions cloud her judgement too much, that was going to be the end of her, and she was already dangerously close to crossing that line.

“Oh, boo fucking hoo! You guys were the ones that chose to come here, and _now_ you’re bitching about it!?” Akiyama shoved Kageyama out of the way with way too little difficulty, the latter clutching his shoulder with a pained wince. “I’ve already said I came here to win, haven’t I?”

“So- So you admit it! Is that it?”

“So what if I do? What are you gonna do about it?”

“Why, that’s a good question!” Mononeko’s shrill voice interrupted the fight, everyone simultaneously turning their heads in the cat’s direction. He appeared to be incredibly agitated - he must’ve still been upset about those two disappearing… “You don’t think you can run away from the law, can you? I am the law here, my dearest blackened!”

He raised his paws into the air.

“I’m sick of listening to you guys go on and on forever, so… voting time it is!”

Before Akiyama could’ve made a single move similarly to Komatsu in the previous trial, a metal cage descended from the ceiling, landing with an ear-splittingly loud sound over him. He slammed his hand against one of the bars in frustration, but it didn’t seem like he’d be able to move it anytime soon.

Kageyama flinched a little as Aragaki turned towards him, though her glare lost most of its effect.

“Don’t forget. After the trial…”

He gave a dazed nod as he staggered back to his original position.

There was no doubt left about how the vote would go.

* * *

 

He’d been sure he’d do just fine - if only he could just get his hands on that damn cat or whoever was controlling it, he would’ve loved to twist their neck with his own two hands.

As soon as the voting finished, the cage was lifted, but he had no time to move before a metal collar circled around his neck, dragging him off. He was dropped onto a circular platform of some kind, right above a dark, seemingly bottomless pit. He circled around the area in a restless manner in an attempt to find a way out, but to no avail - a metal container was soon dropped on top of him, trapping him even more.

He slammed his fist into the wall in frustration, then recoiled with a grimace; he’d gotten burnt. Clutching his hand instinctively, he couldn’t hold back a hiss. The entire platform seemed to be heating up, and the fact that everything was made of metal only made it worse; his clothes soon clung to his skin damply, and he struggled to stay on his feet.

Even breathing was starting to hurt, but the temperature kept rising regardless.

The scent of cooked meat soon wafted through the area.

****

* * *

 

**Chapter 2: End**

**Survivors: 12**

****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mmm dewicious
> 
> so, technically,,, u cant really remove handcuffs because the thing that stops them is at the wrist rather than the thumb but i do wat i want if kodaka can make shit up then so can i and i totally didnt find this out too late hahaha fml


	14. Intermission - Purpose

He didn’t have much idea about what the others had been discussing - he didn’t consider himself very smart, so, as much as it frustrated him, it would’ve just pissed him off even more if he’d have sat in on meetings and have all his ideas shot down. Instead, he occupied himself by scrolling through news sites and blogs on a tablet he’d acquired, trying to see if he could figure something out that way.

Up until recently, Chiba Yuzuru had spent a decent amount of his time staring down Fujinomiya to make sure she wasn’t going to try to pull anything, but honestly, by this point it didn’t seem like that was going to lead him anywhere, especially with all the taunting that had come from the girl - woman? - that managed to annoy him every single time successfully.

He clicked his tongue in annoyance as he adjusted his position slightly, a smaller burst of pain coursing through his ankle yet again. At least there was nobody around this time. It was humiliating enough having to limp everywhere with crutches.

Hopefully that’d be the worst he’d have to deal with, at least for a while.

Before, he would’ve assumed it’d be much easier to conduct this kind of research, but he really had overestimated the amount of information you could find out about people without considerable media presence or at least active social media accounts. He did manage to find a bit of information about some of the others, but he hadn’t really discussed it with anyone - partially because a large portion of the group was _unavailable_ , and partially because he would’ve figured they’d have been able to find it on their own if they wanted to know so much.

When it came to himself, he didn’t really know what to do.

Most of his family was… unimportant - the ones he _really_ cared about hated any kind of media attention, so he wasn’t going to get anywhere there -, and combing through the news lead him nowhere. He was almost tempted to grab Fujinomiya by the collar and shake the answers he needed out of her, but he was pretty certain that he could’ve done anything to her and she would’ve still kept her mouth shut. Besides… he wasn’t exactly in any condition to be threatening people at the moment.

He flinched a little as the door to the room slammed open all of a sudden, letting out a relieved sigh a moment later before his expression shifted to a frown.

“Knock it off the hinges next time too, will you?”

Minamoto puffed her cheeks out like a disgruntled squirrel, looking like she was about to provide a snarky retort before she remembered the reason she’d come to look for him in the first place.

“Hey- Can you walk right now?”

“ _Right now_ right now, or…? I can stumble around if you need me for something,” he leaned on his hand, raising a brow, mood not at all improved. Still, Minamoto did look awfully serious, so the least he could do was listen to whatever announcement she was about to dump on him.

“Just- Any moment,” she corrected herself swiftly, brushing some of her disheveled hair to the side. “I don’t really understand what’s going on, because Hanamiya-kun won’t fill me in yet, but apparently something _really_ bad might happen soon, and you need to be able to move around fast if it does.”

“I don’t really get that…”

“Yes, yes, I don’t either,” she waved his complaint away, having much more important concerns apparently. “Hanamiya-kun is trying to figure it out right now with Tsutsui-san, and they won’t fill me in because they’re busy with whatever it is,” she shrugged.

Chiba let out an annoyed groan; at the same time, though, while the situation may have been starting to feel like a pain, he _was_ slowly getting sick of having practically nothing to do every single day, so it was almost refreshing to be met with new circumstances.

“Great. I doubt I can run yet, but if the worst comes to worst, I’ll just grab a wheelchair and slide around in that,” he grumbled, already trying to weigh his choices and wondering if he was willing to risk drawing out his recovery way longer if it meant he wouldn’t have to sacrifice his pride. Then again, the others would’ve just called him stupid for that, so the safest option may really have been the best… “Unfortunately, if you need heavy lifting, I’m also out for now, so you’ll have to make do on your own, beanpole.”

“I- I can do that, I’m sure,” she stuck her bottom lip out stubbornly. Kageyama had been sent off, so Hanamiya seemed like the only person left who _might_ have been able to do something like that, but then again, the guy seemed like he could barely drag himself around, so Chiba had enough doubts about that. Hopefully they’d be able to get by with just what they had right now…

“Anyway, what _did_ you hear?” he let his face loosen up a bit, more curious about the topic, less intent on acting grumpy. “The island wasn’t dangerous or anything, right? If it’s about the program…”

“I don’t think it’s about that, no,” Minamoto shook her head quickly before hesitating to continue. “Or… I suppose it might be, but not in the way you think. We might… be in trouble.”

Chiba found himself grow more alert at that.

“Huh?”

“You know the people Fujinomiya and Izumi had working for them?” she tilted her head sharply. “Tsutsui-san and I finally found some documents about them yesterday. It’s… some really disturbing stuff, but anyway- They were completely gone when we woke up, right? I’ve been… trying really hard not to think about it until now, but they might end up being… trouble.”

“Geez…” his face scrunched up slightly. “Yeah, okay. I get that. I’ll go find a weapon or something then, just in case.”

“You don’t even know the specifics yet…” Minamoto gave him a flat look, albeit shrugging it off a moment later yet again. “Well, whatever. Do what you want.”

She averted her gaze to stare at the floor instead with a sort of awkward pout.

Hopefully Kageyama was handling things just fine on his own… because apparently they sure as hell weren’t going to be able to assist him in the near future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> teeny intermission before ch3 begins
> 
> edit: i was gonna try to finish ch3 before sunday but i might need another week or two for it because im super busy right now


	15. Chapter 3, Daily Life - Pact

Just like the first time, another earthquake passed through the building, albeit this time knocking considerably less people off their feet since most of them could react faster after already having experienced the first one. No doubt, all traces of the murder were going to vanish once again, the only physical reminder being the space that kept getting smaller with every case.

Yokoyama exhaled slowly as she finally let go of the wall once the shaking had stilled. She had to start thinking of a new solution to avoid another incident. The people who were still around were all relatively cooperative, but that wasn’t going to be a guarantee.

Then again… the little game Mononeko had set up the last time was the perfect thing to counteract her preparations. Maybe… Maybe this time around it might have been better to wait for a new motive to be introduced before thinking of countermeasures against it.

Her head spun with so many variables to consider.

To her left, Aragaki immediately turned to Kageyama, closing her grip around his wrist before starting to drag him away. Yokoyama’s first instinct was to follow after them in an attempt to eavesdrop, but at the same time, with Takahashi and Natsume still around it’d look far too suspicious… not to mention the fact that by now she’d begun to feel genuinely bad for suspecting Kageyama in any way.

Maybe it was for the best if she just let him handle this for now.

She turned her head to look at the other two who were still around, musing over her options. Natsume already knew everything; they couldn’t do much about that. Would it be safe to tell Takahashi anything, though? He didn’t exactly seem like the most stable person around, and lessening the stakes of a killing game wasn’t always the best idea when it also might’ve been more likely to spur someone into action. Still, he _was_ going to find out eventually, unless…

She bit her lip; she felt like a failure, having been unable to do anything about the previous two cases, but she had to remind herself that she _had_ been trying her best.

Takahashi himself, resembling a deer in headlights, slowly opened his mouth to talk.

“I’m… sorry.”

“About what?” Yokoyama blinked, forced back into reality from her lengthy train of thought.

“About… Akiyama-kun. I was the one who was supposed to be watching him, but I couldn’t… do anything…”

His voice trembled; Yokoyama’s features twitched slightly in discomfort, knowing that she was far from the best person when it came to consoling people, especially someone like this guy. She lowered her head in an attempt to hide her awkwardness at least.

“That wasn’t your fault. If anything, it was my own lack of preparedness. I should’ve been a better leader.”

Indeed, one of the responses she was expecting the most was something along the lines of ‘nobody had appointed you as the leader to begin with’, but instead she just received a blank stare.

“Huh…? No, that’s not true…” Takahashi shook his head. “You were doing fine… I think. I mean- There’s only so much a single person can pay attention to too… I think it just couldn’t be helpe-“

“If it couldn’t be helped, then it wasn’t your fault either,” Yokoyama straightened her back, latching onto that immediately. “But… either way, you shouldn’t dwell on it too much right now. Not until we get out of here…”

“Do you… think we can do that?” he averted his gaze briefly, almost afraid to ask. “Do you think we can get out of here…?”

_Well, sooner or later…_

“Yes,” she stated firmly, placing her hands on her hips. “I am absolutely sure of it. If anything, those two still missing might be a good sign. Don’t give up just yet, alright?”

She let out a determined huff.

“Let’s check how much space we have left. We can look around for Nakajima-kun and Sakurauchi-san afterwards, then devise a new strategy. _I’m_ not giving up yet either.”

She began marching towards the staircase before Takahashi could get another word in, assuming - or hoping, rather - that they’d just follow after her in silence for now. She needed more time to come up with a proper plan, especially with so many uncertain variables. She needed to sound confident to keep Takahashi calm - or as close to that as possible -, and she wasn’t sure for how long she could dance around the topic if someone started inquiring too much.

In any case… in a twisted sort of way, having fewer people around would also inevitably make her job easier. Natsume was being handled already, Aragaki seemed like she could keep it together for the most part if she had to, and Kageyama was already _remarkably_ used to everything… so, really, aside from the missing pair, Takahashi was her only concern.

Her strides got longer and longer as she raked her brain for an answer.

* * *

 

If he had to be completely honest, Kageyama hadn’t been expecting any kind of violence _at all_ , so when his back collided with the wall, he almost bit his tongue in half, having been just about to speak up. Aragaki’s fingers dug into his shoulders, and she stared into his eyes intensely enough to leave him just a _little_ weak-kneed.

“You’ll help me out, won’t you?”

The question caught him off-guard as well, and he stared back like a deer in headlights for several seconds before he - in a very dignified manner - responded with a simple ‘Huh?’.

Aragaki’s hold loosened a little; she might not have noticed how tightly she’d been holding onto him until now. At the very least, that was reassuring enough.

“Because,” she took a moment to swallow, “you know more about this than anyone else here, don’t you? So… I need your help to figure out a way to stop the game. I… don’t know if I can handle going through another trial.”

Ah… He should’ve known she was going to request something like that - he did have a faint idea before, but it wasn’t like he could be sure.

How was he supposed to respond, though? There would’ve been no point in playing dumb…

“I don’t really know if that’s something I can do just like that, though,” he flashed an uncertain smile, but only received a deep frown in return.

“Don’t… play it off like that. You always do that… It makes it hard to trust you.”

She averted her gaze.

Well, now, that certainly wasn’t good.

“It’s, y’know, more complicated than that,” he fumbled with his words, still caught between just spilling everything right then and there or attempting to climb out of the hole he’d been digging himself into from day 1. “It would be… really hard to explain everything, and I just don’t really know if it’d help at all…? ‘Cause I don’t want you guys to just… freak out and stuff.”

“I’m not the freak out type,” Aragaki narrowed her eyes, clearly intent on not letting go of him until the situation was settled. “Whatever it is that you know, I need you to tell me. It drives me insane that there’s nothing I can do…”

“I mean, I also don’t wanna get you guys roped up in some stupid plan that’d just backfire in the end.”

The words slipped out so fast he barely even registered them at first, and he immediately stiffened up. He had to remind himself: he was the only one here that still remembered all that. Even if he still felt guilty, he had to try his best to keep it all to himself if he wanted the others to trust him until the very end.

Aragaki gave him a flat look; her expression told him that she didn’t believe him at all. That might’ve been for the best.

“Do _you_ not just trust me? Is that it? Is that the problem?” she pursed her lips briefly as her gaze glided over him, continuing when he didn’t give an answer immediately. “You trust Yokoyama-san, don’t you? How is she any different? Is it because she’s been more upfront with everything?”

“No, that’s just- That was just bad timing, that’s all,” he combed his fingers through his hair, letting out a sigh. “It’s not that I don’t trust you… Y’know, I don’t even know if you’d believe me about the whole thing. It’s pretty wild.”

“I don’t have a choice, do I?” Aragaki grimaced lightly, letting go of him afterwards and straightening her back. “All I’ve got… is you. I don’t want to sit still and wait for some kind of miracle to happen, so the only thing I can do right now is get you to talk. I’m… sure you must have _something_ that I can do.”

He’d been thoroughly backed into a corner; this argument was absolutely going to go on until Aragaki got what she wanted, or until she got him to blurt out something he shouldn’t have said. This Aragaki was… different, though. Maybe… Maybe it would be okay this time around. It had been his bad in the first place for trying to be smart when he really wasn’t - as long as he didn’t do that a second time, it was a mistake easy to avoid.

All he had to do was talk.

* * *

 

“The infirmary is still here… for better or for worse, huh…”

“Why, practically anything can be dangerous if you use it right,” Natsume smiled patiently. “I would not blame the entire room if I was in your shoes.”

“Right, I just have to blame you,” Yokoyama stated in a deadpan manner, nodding her head. “I still remember that, don’t worry.”

The plane with the bar was also still there, and so was the one with the pool. So they still had 3 more left… Unless the next motive was going to screw them over again - which, to be fair, was a very real possibility -, having less and less space would technically make another murder even harder to commit…

Her face scrunched up slightly as she messed her hair up slightly, still frustrated by her own helplessness immensely.

“Do… you think Kageyama-kun and Aragaki-san are done yet?” Takahashi asked quietly, unsure if he could address her while she was wearing such an annoyed expression. She let her features even out a little before she shrugged her shoulders, roughly shoving her hands into her pockets.

“I have no idea. I guess checking up on them couldn’t hurt… Before that, though…”

“The disappearances still leave you quite curious, do they not?” Natsume interjected once again - this had become pretty much a routine by now. “We have not come across anything unusual so far, though… I doubt it would be easy to figure out what had happened without input from those two.”

“They aren’t… d-dead, are they?” Takahashi stammered, and Yokoyama cocked her head to the side sharply.

“I would hope not, and I don’t think it’s very likely. That’s not what the cat was implying.”

As soon as she said that, a faint sound of glass shattering echoed throughout the hall from afar, leaving her stunned for a couple of seconds.

That wasn’t… anything bad, was it? No, no, nothing could go wrong _that_ soon after a trial- ordering a momentarily frozen Takahashi to keep an eye on Natsume, she rushed down the staircase in the direction she heard the noise from, turning her head as she ran to see if she could spot anything suspicious.

Aragaki had dragged Kageyama off towards the store - that had to be the place for her to look, then. With her heart beating quite heavily in her chest, she practically ripped the door open, almost crashing into the doorframe from how fast she attempted to step inside.

She was greeted by absolute chaos.

The pile of gadgets that had been stacked against one of the walls before was now laid out on the floor in the form of a gigantic, messy pile, Kageyama crouching in the center of it all, in the middle of getting to his feet with a sheepish expression. Aragaki seemed to be apologising under her breath, sort of fidgeting with her shoes, as though she wasn’t sure if she should start picking everything up and organizing it once again, or not.

Yokoyama felt the tenseness in her posture disappear so suddenly she had to lean against the wall not to lose her footing as a wave of lightheadedness washed over her, and she let her expression flatten considerably once more.

“Would any of you care to explain what’s going on here?”

The last item that had managed to escape the fall before - a baseball - proceeded to roll down the shelf in a painfully slow manner, narrowly missing Kageyama’s head as it landed on the floor, in the middle of a bunch of broken glass from some miscellaneous object that had shattered during the commotion. Kageyama didn’t even have a scratch on him, of course, the lucky brat; he rubbed the back of his neck with an awkward chuckle.

“Guess we got too much into the conversation. Sorry.”

 _Of course_ the one time she decided against eavesdropping something like this happened.

She groaned as she crouched down to examine the damages from closer.

“Wouldn’t this be against the rules…? I’m pretty sure this counts as destruction of property.”

Then again, the cat could’ve been as flexible with the rules as it wanted to be. Maybe it just didn’t consider every random piece of item to be its property - maybe the rules really were just in place to guard the cameras-

“Oh, don’t worry; those belong to the guests of this place. Since you’re the guests right now, they’re all yours!”

As though on cue, Mononeko grinned down from one of the monitors, posing for the camera, and Yokoyama rolled her eyes.

“Figured as much…”

“The rules are in place so you don’t mess with my precious cameras and monitors,” the robot leaned on one of its paws, “but it also includes the doors and windows, so don’t go breaking those either. One of you got pretty close to that a while back. It was a lot of effort to fix that door, you know!”

“Yes, yes. But you’re willing to bend the rules anyway as long as it’s not a problem to you, aren’t you?” Yokoyama remarked dryly. “If the only problem is just the cameras and monitors, just say that. I’m not in the mood to listen to your tirade about trying to cover for yourself.”

“That’s so mean!”

“And you,” she regarded Kageyama and Aragaki one after another, making a very displeased expression, “please try to be more careful in the future. Aside from the fact that you almost gave me a heart attack, I don’t want people getting hurt if it can be avoided.”

The monitor soon switched off; the cat must’ve had better things to do than to continue to try to get her attention.

“Yeah, yeah, sure thing,” Kageyama nodded his head several times, trying his best to look innocent before giving Aragaki a nudge in the side. “It wasn’t anything serious, yeah? Just an accident is all.”

“…Yeah. Just an accident…” Aragaki echoed the statement, lowering her shoulders in the process. “I apologise.”

“…Well, as long as you understand…” Yokoyama couldn’t help but narrow her eyes at the obviously suspicious responses, but she supposed she could just question Kageyama about it later. Her gaze shifted towards the mess on the floor once again. “You’ll help me clean this up, won’t you?”

Kageyama nodded his head rapidly.

* * *

 

The rest of the day seemed to go by in a flash - most likely because there hadn’t been much of it left to begin with. The crime scene had been cleaned up just like the first one, to everyone’s relief, though Yokoyama couldn’t hold back a few shivers during her evening bath. Still, for the most part, almost everything went back to normal suddenly enough for it to feel even more unnatural than if the tense atmosphere had persisted, leaving her feeling somewhat distanced from reality for the next few hours.

She didn’t end up talking to Kageyama after all; she’d left Natsume with him for the time being.

There was only about an hour left before the nighttime announcement would play, and she was sitting inside the kitchen, slowly sipping in a cup of green tea in an attempt to regain her usual amount of focus. Perhaps it was the combination of the sleep deprivation and the heightened sense of stress that had taken this much of a toll on her, but whatever it was, there really wasn’t much else she could do.

The door opened and closed almost soundlessly, and she absentmindedly glanced over her shoulder to see Takahashi standing just a few steps away, staring at her in an uncertain manner. She breathed a quiet sigh.

“Did you need something?”

“O-oh, no- I was just…”

“If you’re hungry or something, just eat. You don’t need my permission for that, do you?” she raised a brow, turning her back to him once more to finish her tea. “And if you want to talk, just talk before nighttime starts. You don’t need permission for that either.”

Apparently that was enough.

Takahashi took a seat next to her.

“I was just… wondering about something.”

Yokoyama hummed at the vague statement, waiting for him to continue for now. He lifted one of his hands slowly, pointing at himself with a fair amount of hesitance.

“Do you think I’m the odd one out here…?”

“I don’t know what you’re referring to…” Yokoyama propped her chin up on the table, placing the now empty cup back down, having finished her drink, and Takahashi lowered his head.

“By that, I mean… Do you think I’m the only one here who’s so… pathetic like this?”

Yikes.

“Because,” he studied the ground very, very intently, drawing circles on his lap with his thumb, “you guys all seem to have some kind of goal… It’s like… rather than letting things happen, you’re still trying to make things work so hard. Doesn’t that… get difficult?”

“Of course it’s difficult,” Yokoyama let out a small huff, causing the taller boy to flinch a little. “If it was easier, I’d have gotten us out of here a long time ago.”

“That’s… not really what I meant…”

“Are you worried about having some kind of grand goal for your life or something? Because it’s not your fault if you don’t have that. Things like that tend to just happen whether you want them to or not.”

He went silent after that, but only for a few seconds.

“But… doesn’t it get hard when things just never seem to work out?”

“That’s just how it is sometimes,” Yokoyama grumbled. “There’s not much you can do about that. Why are you asking _me_ all these questions anyway…? I doubt I’m the best person to give you my insight… I’m not… very good at understanding how people work.”

Takahashi started to fidget, shifting around in his seat ever so slightly. He was a lot less intimidatingly tall when he was sitting down, and his nervous, awkward mannerisms that had started to slip through more and more made him seem somewhat childlike. Yokoyama almost felt like she was playing the role of some kind of teacher, having to explain something to a younger student that she should’ve had a grasp on by now, but still hadn’t quite understood herself.

“I don’t know…” Takahashi glanced up at her briefly. “You just… seemed like the most fitting person, maybe. You always say things that make you sound really determined…”

“…That’s just because I’m stubborn,” she shrugged her shoulders, leaning back in her seat. “Besides… there’s no way I’d ever be fine with being stuck here, and I wouldn’t be able to look him in the eye if I just let you guys die on me.”

Though… she was doing a rather questionable job at that…

“Who… are you talking about…?”

Yokoyama blinked.

She’d almost forgotten who she was talking to.

“Just someone that I still have some business with in the outside world,” she stated, getting to her feet and dusting off her pants, though more for show than anything. She held her hand out afterwards, trying to show some common courtesy. “Regardless… if you’re looking for encouragement, Kageyama-kun is a safer bet than I am.”

Takahashi carefully took her hand, getting up from the chair.

“You two really get along, don’t you?”

“Yes, yes, I’ve heard that before. Do you have an issue with that?” she shoved her hands into her pockets, glancing at the clock on the wall from the corner of her eye. She would’ve hated to be locked out of her room by accident.

“No… Not really,” Takahashi flashed a polite smile, though his heart didn’t seem to be in it much. “I’m just kind of jealous. I don’t really have anyone like that. Not anymore.”

The statement was sincere enough to leave Yokoyama with no idea how to respond, so she awkwardly cleared her throat, her feet beginning to walk towards the door on their own.

“…Go see Kageyama-kun tomorrow. He’s a scatterbrain anyway, so I won’t need him for brainstorming.”

As soon as she was outside, she had to resist the urge to run, immediately having a flashback to every embarrassing talk she’d had during her teenage years - granted, there weren’t many, thanks to her hedgehog-like defense mechanisms, but she was still incredibly clumsy with speaking to people in such an open manner, or with having to figure out how to react or what to say to genuine confessions.

Kageyama was always so easygoing, he’d been way easier to talk to.

She found him in the bedroom, just as she’d hoped she would. It seemed like he’d already taken care of Natsume - either that, or Natsume had cuffed himself to the wall somehow. To be fair, that wouldn’t have been all that surprising; he was strange enough for Yokoyama not to question most of his behavior by now.

She had to remember to alert the appropriate authorities once all of this was over.

“’Sup…” Kageyama greeted her, lying face down on the bed. Yokoyama placed her hands on her hips.

“You’re awfully relaxed. Today wasn’t _that_ pleasant of a day, was it?”

There was no real bite to her words, though.

“Yeah… no kidding,” he rolled over onto his back, letting out a deep sigh. “Aragaki gave me hell, y’know. I thought for sure she was gonna punch me at one point.”

“She’s probably still upset about earlier. You should’ve known not to provoke her,” Yokoyama sat down onto her own bed, stretching her back; now that she was back in this room, she could clearly feel the day’s exhaustion wrapping around her like some kind of blanket, trying to lull her to unconsciousness.

“It’s not that… Or- I guess it was that, yeah, but not the provoking part. She just thought I was messing with her when I was telling her all the stuff I’d told you.”

A short silence fell upon the room.

“And so, the secret spreads even more,” Natsume hummed, breaking it soon enough. Yokoyama shook her head before she properly lay down, rolling onto her side.

“…I figured you were going to do that sooner or later, so I can’t say I’m too surprised.”

“Dude, she wasn’t gonna let me out of there until I did,” Kageyama retorted, sounding just a tad defensive. “She promised she wasn’t going to do anything on her own, though. You should probably talk to her tomorrow.”

“Will do…”

Even though she was already feeling incredibly sleepy, she forced herself to continue the conversation for just a bit longer.

“Why were you so reluctant to talk to her in the first place? It’s weird to see you tiptoe around something so much.”

“You wouldn’t get it…” came the response, and Yokoyama forced down the urge to fling her pillow right at his head.

“I can’t stand it when people say that.”

“You really wouldn’t, though. Unless you’ve killed someone before.”

“…Huh-?”

Kageyama shot up into a sitting position immediately.

“Phrasing- That’s not- Goddammit…” he buried his face in his hands, taking a deep breath before lowering them again. “It’s too late for this.”

“No, no, you’re not getting out of this after you said that,” Yokoyama sat up herself, staring at him rather intensely. “Care to enlighten me about this? Because at this point, it’ll only be worse if you don’t say anything.”

“Give me a break…”

He knew that she had a very good point there, though, so, with a completely defeated expression he threw himself back down, and began to talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is the only time weedman gets a POV because ch3 is a special case and i had to include the convo somehow


	16. Chapter 3, Daily Life - Inbetween

Yokoyama didn’t think she’d be woken up in the middle of the night, and yet here she was, staring at the complete darkness that surrounded her with wide open eyes, not moving a single muscle. Her awakening was so sudden that she’d just frozen up, waiting for her eyes to get used to the darkness before she could move.

Before that could happen, though, she felt something poke her through the blanket, and she shot up reflexively, smashing her head right into whoever was leaning over her, cutting off their high-pitched shriek with the collision. She would’ve assumed it was just Kageyama - except he was definitely the type to just straight up start shaking her awake instead.

She leapt for the light switch.

She had to shield her eyes for a moment, having a hard time adjusting to the sudden brightness, but she soon resorted to simply keeping her eyes relatively narrowed as she scanned the room.

Natsume was still where they’d left him. Kageyama had fallen out of bed at the commotion, tangled up in his own blanket like some kind of fish in a fisherman’s net, and in the center of the room, lying across the floor, was Nakajima, whimpering as he rubbed his forehead.

If it had been anyone else, Yokoyama might’ve gotten much more nervous all of a sudden, but seeing someone so pathetic removed any sense of threat she would’ve felt otherwise.

“What are you doing here…?” she sighed, placing her hands on her hips. “And where were you all this time? Aren’t you worried about that cat finding you if you just appear like this?”

She was much too used to crazy things happening around her to act too surprised about the whole thing.

Nakajima glared up at her with teary eyes.

“I- I was going to tell you… until you… attacked me…!”

“That’s your fault for being so creepy…” Yokoyama frowned, glancing at Kageyama from the corner of her eye - he seemed to be in the middle of attempting to free himself from his fabric prison, finally managing to get on his knees at the very least.

They talked quite a lot last night, and the memories of the conversation flooded back pretty much instantaneously. She couldn’t say that she regretted asking, but she certainly did feel a fair amount of sympathy for him after listening to a story like that, and for better or for worse, now she had an even harder time suspecting him of anything. He’d already proven himself to be trustworthy, of course, but she wasn’t used to being able to put so much faith into someone else, so it just felt… strange.

She cleared her mind to the best of her abilities once again; this really wasn’t the time to be feeling sentimental.

“Just… J-just ask Sakurauchi…san later. I don’t want to be a messenger pigeon…” Nakajima muttered, getting to his feet with a bit of difficulty. He continued a moment later with a childish pout. “Or… I just don’t really understand it, t-that’s it.”

Yokoyama raised a brow, but Nakajima shook his head.

“L-like I said, just ask her.”

“Well, maybe I _would_ if I _could_ -“

“That’s only b-because you keep being impatient and not l-letting me do my job…!”

“Dude, am I still asleep…?” was Kageyama’s contribution; Yokoyama walked over the yank the rest of the blanket off of him, throwing it back onto the bed and pulling him to his feet.

“Just… f-follow me, okay?” Nakajima huffed, turning around and opening up the closet door. Before any of the others could direct another question towards him, he simply walked inside, disappearing behind the clothes hanging inside.

“I feel like I’ve seen that in a movie before…” Kageyama mumbled sleepily, rubbing his eyes. He looked at Yokoyama questioningly, but as she simply shrugged her shoulders, he walked ahead without too much hesitation.

A quiet cough came from the other side of the room before Yokoyama could follow him, causing Kageyama to glance back over his shoulder at the last second.

“I believe you have forgotten something,” Natsume said, staring at them expectantly. “I do hope you do not intend to just leave me here on my own. Even if it _is_ rather late, I would prefer to be enlightened on the situation as soon as possible-“

“Let’s leave him,” Yokoyama stated, finally starting to walk herself.

Natsume let out a sad sigh.

“Such a cold response… My heart aches, Yokoyama-san.”

Yokoyama shoved the clothes out of her way with an annoyed huff.

As soon as she’d passed them, she knew something was off - well, even more so than she’d originally thought. She really wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting - a secret passage or something…? -, but it definitely wasn’t _empty space_. She found herself floating, surrounded by blackness once again - except it wasn’t dark; she could see the other two just fine. It was more like… an empty room where all the walls had been painted black.

Then her vision cut out for a few seconds.

When she came to, she was standing on some kind of platform; they appeared to be high up in the sky, with the ground nowhere in sight, just like how it had been in the tower they’d been trapped in until now. She tried her best not to look down; the vertigo was a bit too much when there was no barrier stopping her from simply stepping off and falling to god knows where.

Sakurauchi was sitting cross-legged on the ground, diligently typing away at a computer; Nakajima rushed over to her as soon as he spotted her, then carefully crouching down on her other side, as though trying to hide from the others.

Well… apparently they had bonded.

Whatever, Yokoyama had more important things to be pondering about.

“Duuude… What’s up with this place?” Kageyama stumbled around, craning his neck to examine their surroundings from every angle.

“Don’t worry about it too much,” Sakurauchi spoke without lifting her gaze. She seemed to be incredibly focused on what she was doing, so much so that her usual sheepish attitude has shifted into a tad more matter-of-factly one as well. “I don’t want to waste time by changing the scenery.”

“What…?”

“This space appears to be the only area that’s out of Mononeko’s control. Think of it as an unused map from a videogame where enemies can’t spawn,” she continued, seemingly having a hard time imagining that they didn’t instantly understand what she was talking about. “I was able to temporarily create a passageway to your room, but usurping control over it was way harder. I don’t know if I can do it again for a while.”

“Oh yeah, you’re the computer chick,” Kageyama’s eyes lit up. “I almost forgot about that.”

Sakurauchi’s fingers paused, and she turned around with a sort of embarrassed pout.

“It’s _programmer_ … More importantly-”

“Yeah, that,” he grinned, shoving his hands into his pockets cheerfully. “How’d you get here in the first place, though?”

“…Through a window,” she replied reluctantly, fidgeting with her hands in her lap. “Because of Tooru-san… He pried one of them open to try to leave and we ended up falling,” she puffed her cheeks out as her gaze slowly settled on Nakajima, who flinched in response. “I’m still upset about that, you know… even if it was an accident.”

Nakajima muttered something that sounded vaguely like an apology.

“But shouldn’t you know how this works?” she looked to Kageyama next, tilting her head slightly. “When I was looking through the logs, I saw that you’d logged in twice. Plus, given with the way you’d been acting… I figured you wouldn’t need any explanations…?”

Of course that was pretty much common knowledge by now.

“Eehh, it’s not like that…” Kageyama scratched the back of his neck, but Yokoyama went ahead and stepped in front of him before he could continue.

“Kageyama-kun more than likely knows much less about the current state of this… _world_ than you do at the moment, so I wouldn’t rely on him for information about that,” she crossed her arms. “I’ll fill you in later about everything you need to know. Right now, I’d like _you_ to tell me anything that’s important enough for me to know about.”

“Ah- Well, okay, I can do that…” Sakurauchi bit her lip, gradually going back to her work while she resumed talking.

Yokoyama disregarded all the technical terms she didn’t understand and didn’t care about - how the space functioned was irrelevant, seeing as how she herself wouldn’t have any way of making use of that information anyway. She was much more curious about how much she’d have to spill later.

Sakurauchi was naïve and trusting; she had no problem honestly explaining everything she knew, and it was clear that even with his weird mannerisms, she hadn’t suspected Kageyama of anything bad for even a second. She seemed to be fairly aware of the program’s functions as well, which was definitely going to prove to be useful, even only judging by the current circumstances.

“I don’t… really know if I can do anything about the others,” her typing slowed down as her shoulders sank, clearly disappointed with herself. “From what I understand, we should be able to fix everything by simply rebooting it, but I don’t have the authority to be able to do that just yet. Not to mention… I’d need to find a way to back up all the memories first, and- It’s just… It might be a lost cause for now…”

Her stomach rumbled, and she frowned.

“I haven’t found a way to disable the need for food either, which is… unfortunate. I’ve only been able to produce water so far. I don’t imagine you guys have anything…”

Yokoyama and Kageyama both shook their heads, and Sakurauchi sighed.

“That’s alright… I wasn’t expecting anything in the first place.”

“Can’t you do anything about the cat for now?” Kageyama shifted his weight from one foot to another. “That’s the only reason you can’t come back, right?”

“That’s easier said than done…”

She hunched forward as she lowered her head.

“I was hoping I’d be able to solve this as soon as possible, but… I guess that won’t be for a while longer. I’m sorry… I finally found something I can do, but it’s still not enough…”

Kageyama walked over to lightly bump the top of her head with his fist.

“Don’t be like that, come on. We’ll help you out, aight? I mean, this is already way better than how we started off.”

His tone sounded genuinely cheerful for a change, though that wasn’t exactly surprising. He probably felt responsible about the situation as well, so it must’ve been especially relieving to receive such a lucky helping hand. Even Yokoyama allowed herself to be hopeful for a change, burying all her worries and anxieties deep in her subconscious for the time being.

She was starting to feel like this was her last chance; no matter what, she had to make things work this time around. The adrenaline rush from the excitement helped with her difficulty in focusing properly after so much sleep deprivation, and she had to take a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself down again.

“You should listen to Kageyama-kun,” she advised with a soft sigh. “You’re already doing better than most of us.”

Sakurauchi opened and closed her mouth a few times before she settled with simply puffing her cheeks.

“…I’ll be sure to figure something out if I can just have more time… Please take Tooru-san back with you in the meantime.”

“ _Me!?_ ” Nakajima’s eyes widened, and he scooted backwards frantically right away. “Why _me_ -?”

“I can’t go back yet… not while I’m still working on this,” she bit her lip. “And I don’t mean to be… mean, but you’d kind of just be in the way if you stayed here. Besides, I feel like a compromise of some sort with this whole thing might make the A.I. more cooperative too… because he’ll continue punishing the others for it if we don’t do anything.”

“But… But…” Nakajima tried to object; he clearly wasn’t comfortable with returning to the others, unsurprisingly, but it wasn’t like there was anything wrong with Sakurauchi’s logic, so it would’ve been rather difficult to argue.

If Yokoyama had to be honest, she would’ve preferred not to have to deal with a person like this either, but she wasn’t going to let her own pet peeves influence her rational way of thinking; she stood by in silence to observe the back-and-forth, only listening with one ear as she tried to formulate some kind of plan in her head.

If they were going to be given a motive, judging by what had happened so far, it was going to be soon. Maybe the next day, or maybe the day after that, but she had a pretty good feeling the cat wasn’t going to wait for too long… so they didn’t have much time to waste. The best case scenario would be if it didn’t explicitly force their hand, but…

Yeah, she couldn’t possibly count on that.

Perhaps if they took Nakajima back they’d be able to stall for time at the very least; she herself had no idea about what Sakurauchi could and couldn’t do, so she couldn’t exactly go down specific routes of prediction in her head, but she did know that time was the best thing they could give her at the moment. And if the A.I. was capable of observing everything that went down in the program aside from the space they were currently in, they had to agree on a course of action _here_ to prevent it from messing with their plans further.

She furrowed her brows.

“Say, wouldn’t it be possible to make a deal with the cat somehow?” she pondered out loud, unsure if she was expecting a response from any of the others. “If we were to take Nakajima-kun back,” said person’s protests went completely ignored as Yokoyama continued, “we could use Sakurauchi-san as a sort of hostage to give us more time before the next motive.”

In the end, she didn’t give them enough time to be able to reply, straightening her back and lifting her chin.

“What if we were to struck a deal to bring back Sakurauchi-san in exchange for not giving us any more motives? I doubt he’d keep his word even if he’d agree to that, but I don’t think he’d do anything until she was back again to make sure that we really would go through with it.”

Kageyama whistled.

“I guess that might work…”

“But are you sure that’d be okay…?” Sakurauchi looked between the two, not too convinced just yet. “He might just get more upset about it, right?”

“But we’ve got nothing else, do we?” Kageyama persisted, obviously liking the idea a lot already. “Yokoyama’s the one who thought of it, and she wouldn’t just throw it out there if she didn’t think it’d work, right?”

He turned to her for support, and she silently nodded her head.

A half-truth would have to do the trick for now.

“See? Let’s give it a shot,” Kageyama exclaimed eagerly, patting her on the back. “We’ll be counting on you too, ‘kay?”

He received a hesitant nod.

* * *

 

Transitioning from that strange area back to the usual place was definitely just as weird as the first time they travelled between the two, but at least this time around nothing was stopping Yokoyama from momentarily collapsing on top of her mattress. She had no idea how much time had passed; her sense of time had gotten dulled down considerably with everything that had gone down, and she was much too exhausted to even glance at the clock.

She let Kageyama and Nakajima settle their own little dispute on their own; unfortunately, Sakurauchi couldn’t create another separate passage, so the boy was stuck with them for now, and Kageyama appeared to be in the middle of trying to convince him to just use the damn bed, since he was willing to spend the rest of the night on the floor. Yokoyama tuned them out after a while, simply glad that Mononeko was leaving them be for now, actually managing to get a bit more sleep before morning came once again.

Granted, it wasn’t much, but it did serve to get rid of some dizziness and mellow out her headache a little.

She wasn’t the first one to be woken up by the announcement; Nakajima was already up and awake, and as far as she could tell, Kageyama seemed to have won the argument, as he was sprawled up on the floor on top of a rolled up blanket, seemingly still wanting to get a bit more sleep. She nudged him awake with her foot before she unchained Natsume from the wall, leaving Nakajima and Kageyama to their own devices as she dragged the handcuffed boy out into the hall.

“Do I not even get a greeting?” Natsume mused. “You have been treating me even more coldly than before lately. It is truly saddening.”

“What’s really saddening is your inability to read the mood…” Yokoyama muttered under her breath, heading for Aragaki’s room. She wasn’t… _expecting_ Aragaki to try anything, per se, but she couldn’t convince herself to visit her without first taking some tiny precautionary measures.

Natsume was probably her best bet when it came to keeping Aragaki in line if there was any need for that.

They almost crashed into each other from the sudden way the other girl stepped out into the hallway; she averted her gaze to mumble an apology under her breath, but Yokoyama grabbed onto her wrist before she could rush past her.

Aragaki clicked her tongue as soon as she spotted Natsume, but she composed herself just for the sake of the conversation with a raise of her brow.

“Do you need something?”

Before Yokoyama could address her to start questioning her and making sure that they were both on the same page, however, the nearby monitors turned on simultaneously, showcasing the usual sight of the cat plushie lazily lounging around.

Alright… perhaps it was a bit silly of her to assume it’d leave them alone completely. It- He was probably just waiting for all of them to wake up properly.

Great…

“Well, don’t any of you have anything to tell me?” he tapped his feet impatiently; Yokoyama silently noted Kageyama stepping out of the room to see what was going on outside, Takahashi poking his head out of his own as well. “I’m waiting, you know. Be good, now, and confess everything to daddy.”

“You’re already supposed to know everything, aren’t you? Just get it over with if you have something to say…” Yokoyama scowled, placing her hands on her hips once she’d let go of Aragaki. “You can leave otherwise, because I don’t have time for meaningless back-and-forth right now.”

“Oh, oh, I see how it is! You just don’t understand the situation you’re in right now, that’s all!” Mononeko hissed; Yokoyama would’ve most likely provoked him a lot more had she not been in a situation where she had to control herself for the most part.

She would’ve hated to ruin everything by being a snarky jackass.

Taking a deep breath, she composed her expression and dropped her arms to her sides, responding herself before anyone else could talk.

“You’re wondering about Sakurauchi-san, aren’t you? Well, I’m sorry, but I can’t help you with that,” she cocked her head to the side, raising her arms in a helpless manner. “Only Nakajima-kun was willing to come back.”

“And that’s unacceptable!” Mononeko declared, stomping his feet. “How can we have a killing game when some of the participants aren’t even present!?”

Yokoyama thought she might’ve heard a scared, muffled yelp from the only person that hadn’t come outside.

“Like I said, there’s not much we can do about it. You’ll just punish her anyway when she comes back, won’t you?” she shrugged her shoulders lightly.

“…N-no, of course not! You get rewarded when you behave yourself in society. N-nyahaha…”

“Oh? And where’s your proof of that?”

“Ah, geez…!” the cat huffed, angrily muttering something to himself for a few seconds. “Is that what you want? You want a reward, do you? Well, I’ll let you have it if you bring Sakurauchi-nyan back!”

“… _Nyan…_?”

“Well- That’s good, then! That’s fine, that works!” Kageyama chimed in quickly; Yokoyama couldn’t help but assume that he just had that low faith in her to handle it on her own, but she couldn’t even get mad about it, instead holding back a pout and turning her head away.

If she wanted to be a leader, she had to learn how to handle other people.

“You’re so pushy already, hmph! It’s just what you wanted all along, isn’t it?” Mononeko whined, plopping back down with crossed arms. “Fine, fine, you can have it then! If you’re going to be so stubborn about it!”

Kageyama rubbed his hands together as one of his usual stupid-looking grins spread across his face, seemingly trying to play nice.

“Then, if we can _really_ have it, wouldn’t you cut it out with the motives already?”

He’d put it so bluntly; Yokoyama winced at it a little. Still, she probably would’ve done the same thing, so she shouldn’t have been one to talk.

Aragaki opened her mouth as though she wanted to interrupt, but she closed it just as silently in the end, instead concentrating her intense stare onto Kageyama as though trying to drill a hole right through him.

“But we can’t have a killing game without any motives… Geez, you’re so silly!” Mononeko waved one of his paws; Kageyama persisted, though.

“Well, there’s nothing else you can give us… apart from getting out of here, is there?” he tilted his head slightly. “Might as well agree to it, ‘cause _I_ can’t think of anything else.”

“I can give you information-“

“Don’t need it!” Kageyama shot him down immediately, causing Yokoyama to flinch once again. Was that _really_ a smart move-? But then again, they couldn’t guarantee whether or not information given like that would even be useful or not… He certainly wasn’t going to tell them anything that’d help them leave…

“Geez! I can also expand your territory, you know! Isn’t there anything else you want here? Like an even bigger arcade than the previous one, or an indoor park, or a-“

“Nope, nope, and whatever the third option is, that’s also probably a nope,” Kageyama shoved his hands in his pockets. “C’mon, dude, just throw us a bone. If you’re asking for a deal, that’s the only one we’ll agree to.”

While Yokoyama had to admit she was rather anxious, she turned out to be right; Mononeko had reluctantly agreed to it, grumbling all the while. It wasn’t like they could trust him to keep that promise at all, of course, but even a little bit of extra time was going to be helpful, especially when they were usually so short on it. She let out a sigh of relief, letting her shoulders lower and relaxing her stance.

Alright, that was one step closer.

Already calculating every possible way this could go in her head, she grabbed Aragaki by the wrist once again, not forgetting to take Natsume with her as she dragged both of them off, ignoring everyone calling out to her one by one to ask what she was doing. Aragaki seemed pretty grumpy about Natsume also coming along, but she didn’t resist too much at the very least, only trying to distance herself from the boy for the most part.

Yokoyama was going to have this talk whether they liked it or not.


	17. Chapter 3, Daily Life - Regret

The talk with Aragaki was… _okay_ , probably. Yokoyama wasn’t that good at reading her, but, at the very least, she seemed genuine enough in her responses. She did seem a little _strange_ \- almost like she wasn’t fully paying attention to everything Yokoyama was saying -, but that wasn’t exactly unexpected. Either she didn’t really believe Kageyama, or just needed more time to think everything over - either way, Yokoyama didn’t want to involve herself with it beyond simply acknowledging it and continuing to keep up her guard.

The passage Sakurauchi had created was still there. _Of course_ the pretense of convincing her had to be kept up, so Yokoyama took it upon herself to drag Natsume around as she visited her once again - making sure to bring her some food -, begrudgingly filling him in just in case to prevent him from losing his seemingly never-ending patience and resorting to drastic actions. His reactions resembled Aragaki’s, but he’d always been like that from the first word they exchanged with him, where he’d just act as though he was both daydreaming and conversing at the same time, so Yokoyama didn’t even bat an eye at it.

She stood by Sakurauchi as she continued working, musing over a certain someone’s position.

The so-called killing game felt much less serious when one was aware of the full circumstances, and now that almost everyone had been notified about it, it felt like even less of a pressing concern now. It felt less irreversible, and she began to feel like it was simply a challenging riddle of some sort that she could start over as many times as she could want, and would inevitably end up solving eventually.

That didn’t make seeing the actual dead bodies less disturbing, but it did help with getting over the shock from that considerably.

Takahashi, though… He really was a strange case. It seemed like he’d gained much more of a desire to help out somehow - perhaps seeing the others be so determined triggered something in him, who knows… -, but either way, Yokoyama still had doubts about trusting him fully. He didn’t seem emotionally mature enough - or more like… he just seemed like the kind of person who’d break really easily if the pressure was hard enough.

Yokoyama wasn’t sure if she wanted to put any kind of faith in a person like that.

For now, she told herself watching over Natsume was the only task she should concern herself with.

“By the way,” said person perked up, as though he suddenly remembered something he’d been wanting to ask, “I have taken notice about the change in behavior between Nakajima-kun and yourself. It has left me quite curious.”

If he’d have asked any other question, Yokoyama might’ve smacked him over the head for disturbing Sakurauchi in her work, but she herself had a fair amount of interest in it as well, so she only scoffed at him under her breath, keeping her displeasure mostly to herself this time around.

“Tooru-san…? We just had some time to talk, that’s all,” Sakurauchi shrugged, the suddenly struck up conversation fortunately not giving her too much of a handicap. “It’s nothing unusual.”

“Well, _I_ would not know that. I have not studied human behavior enough to conclude on my own whether these patterns could be considered normal or not,” Natsume rambled away. “Or rather, my own abilities might just be limited in that regard. I was wondering if you would be willing to humor me for a little while, since I would rather not stand around in complete silence.”

“You sure are… wordy,” Sakurauchi bit her lip; it didn’t seem like she had the heart to tell him off, which was both mildly irritating and sort of confusing, considering the kind of person Natsume had shown himself to be so far. “I don’t… really know if Tooru-san would want me to share any of it, though, I’m sorry. We just had some in-depth conversations about certain topics. Or… well- It was more one-sided than that, but-“

Yeah, that was about what Yokoyama had figured herself. Sakurauchi seemed like the type who’d resort to sudden emotional talks when she needed to comfort someone anyway, and Nakajima was about the most pathetic person around out of everyone, so Yokoyama was sure the girl felt inclined to open up on her own.

“In… any case, if you’re that curious, you’ll have to ask Tooru-san… though I’m not so sure if he would want to tell you himself, like I said,” Sakurauchi cleared her throat awkwardly. “I don’t even think he trusts me that much either…”

Of course something like that wasn’t going to happen so fast when Nakajima was the person in question.

“In any case,” Yokoyama finally interrupted, realising that Sakurauchi herself didn’t really want to continue talking about this, “have you found anything useful yet? Even if it’s just information…”

“I mean- There’s… _something_ , I guess,” the girl frowned briefly, “but I’m not sure how useful it’d be…”

Yokoyama let out a sigh.

“Just tell me… It might help me put something together, if nothing else.”

Sakurauchi seemed to ponder over that for a few seconds before she nodded her head.

“It’s… about Komatsu Yui-san. Do you remember that bell she wore? It seems like there was some kind of tracker inside of it…”

“A tracker…?”

“I don’t really know if it’s significant,” Sakurauchi said quickly, clearly not wanting Yokoyama to be disappointed with it. “Maybe it was just there so she wouldn’t lose it… It’s still functional in the real world, from what I can see.”

Yokoyama’s brows furrowed more and more as she recalled the various other things she’d learned about Komatsu so far.

That bell was definitely not good news, and she most definitely hadn’t been the one to place that tracker inside of it.

“…I suppose I’ll keep that in mind for now.”

Suddenly the idea of a time limit didn’t seem so improbable.

\-------------------------------------------------------

She said she’d keep what Sakurauchi had told her in mind, but it was more like she couldn’t stop thinking about it, constantly repeating the same information in her head over and over as though that was going to lead to some sort of epiphany. Perhaps it was from the frustration of not really being able to do much herself at the moment, or perhaps it was to ignore the chatter Natsume provided as he followed her around while she wandered around the place without a clear destination.

If it was something else entirely, she didn’t spend too much time theorizing about another reason.

“Is there any particular reason why you have requested me to stay by your side for the time being?” Natsume inquired, snapping her out of her thoughts momentarily; she sent a flat look in his direction.

“I figured I’d make myself useful by keeping an eye on you for a change. I’m sure the others are overjoyed that you’re far away from them.”

It was kind of her way of making up for feeling so useless.

“I do not believe I have made any kind of suspicious moves, though,” Natsume let out a small sigh. “It is not as if I even have a motive to do anything anymore either. It would be quite silly of me to expect to get out of here all on my own.”

He… wasn’t exactly wrong.

Still, Yokoyama couldn’t bring herself to trust him at all, not even for a second. She couldn’t help but think that the moment she let him go off on his own he was going to cause some kind of disaster, even if he had absolutely zero desire to. He just seemed like that kind of ridiculous person.

“…I don’t care. I don’t need you to be added to the list of things that I’m already stressed about,” she scowled, crossing her arms. “Besides, I’m going to get you arrested as soon as possible once we’re out of here.”

“Oh?” Natsume raised a brow, tilting his head slightly. “For what, if I may ask?”

“…Attempted murder…”

“It is not as if this is the real world, though, is it? They would hardly accept anything that happened here the same way as they would in reality,” Natsume smiled, speaking in a completely matter-of-fact tone like he believed that wholeheartedly.

Yokoyama kind of wanted to smack him in the face for that.

“You say that like you’re bragging about it,” she narrowed her eyes. “This might be a special case, but I’ll make sure you’re dealt with accordingly. I have plenty of connections.”

“My, to think that you would threaten me in such a manner…” he appeared to be quite amused by it, and she couldn’t tell at all if he was even taking her seriously or not. “If that is the case, though, should you not also make sure everyone else gets punished in the same manner? I am not the only one who has resorted to such an action, after all, and I cannot imagine you would simply accept the _executions_ as they would qualify as vigilante justice. In fact…” his smile widened, “you cannot know for sure whether you yourself have committed any kind of crime during the time you have spent here. You do not have all your memories, do you? Not even Kageyama-kun can help you with that.”

Her hands balled into fists slowly as she grit her teeth; the accusation was insulting enough on its own, but the fact that it was coming from someone like Natsume really made her blood boil. She wasn’t going to start doubting her own sense of morality now - she was sure she was strong-willed enough to never dirty her hands in such a manner.

“Yes, well, not everyone is like you,” she hissed back sharply, turning her head away before his face could piss her off even more. “I happen to hold rules in very high regard. Even if I didn’t, there’s no way I’d kill someone.”

Even now, she wouldn’t be able to bring herself to do such a thing, fully aware that it was practically pretend.

She ignored the small doubt tugging at her - she wasn’t going to let Natsume manipulate her like that, whether he was doing it on purpose or not.

“You cannot know that for sure, though, can you?” Natsume mused, not convinced at all. “Humans can do things they would never even dream of otherwise if they are driven into a corner.”

“… _You_ wouldn’t understand,” she promptly walked ahead, slamming the door to the kitchen open.

 _Good_ , there was nobody around - she was just mostly wondering if she could make a small snack to try to stimulate her brain better, but having something to angrily munch on might’ve also helped with dealing with Natsume’s unbearable attitude.

“Of course I will not understand it if you do not explain it to me,” came Natsume’s response as he followed after her, saying it like that was the obvious answer. “I cannot read minds, after all - and your logic is often times baffling to me, if I have to be honest.”

Such a normal response - it made sense, and the fact that it did was just even more annoying.

Maybe she should’ve brought Kageyama - but that’d just be even more troublesome towards him, wouldn’t it?

“…Are you really this clueless?” she muttered partially, reluctant to continue the conversation. “Your parents did a poor job raising you. You talk like you’re some spoiled rich kid.”

“By all means, I am as much of an adult as any of you here,” Natsume corrected her swiftly, once again missing the point of the argument. “I did not have any parents for a portion of my life, in any case-“

“I wasn’t asking you to unload all your baggage onto me,” Yokoyama cut him off sharply, stopping in her tracks momentarily as she tapped her feet. As she thought she would be, she was feeling much too restless to sit down. “I couldn’t care less about why you’re so messed up. It’s not my job to remedy that.”

“I was simply assuming you would prefer me to correct you on details you got wrong.”

“Do me a favor and read the mood, Natsume-kun,” she clicked her tongue.

So what if he had a difficult past…? It wasn’t like that was uncommon. That was still no excuse to be doing whatever he wanted to do with no repercussions. Hell, she herself had gotten bullied to hell and back all throughout her life, but it didn’t turn _her_ into a criminal.

Even for her seemingly unreachable goal she wouldn’t be willing to dirty her hands. It had been her fault partially to begin with - her own negligence, her own willingness to stubbornly stick to what she’d been taught would be right to believe. If that meant she would have to work harder for it, then so be it. She wasn’t the one suffering the most for it anyway…

She wished she’d at least had Kageyama to open up to about it, though… but she didn’t need to worsen anyone’s image of her even more.

* * *

 

Takahashi wasn’t exactly a better choice… nor was Nakajima.

Once again, Yokoyama was doing what felt like babysitting. Kageyama had graciously taken over watching over Natsume with Aragaki, leaving her with the other two in the lounge, which was… a rather strange experience, as one of them was trying his best to be as silent as possible, while the other would repeatedly attempt to spark conversation, seemingly out of a need for something to focus on.

Takahashi must’ve been somewhat of a social butterfly to begin with even if his attitude at the start would’ve lead one to believe otherwise.

Yokoyama followed Nakajima’s example, though.

The concept of small talk in this situation with someone she wasn’t already incredibly familiar with felt alien and strange. She’d just barely gotten to know how to behave around people in casual social interactions, and that wasn’t in… some death game. Was behavior like that _really_ appropriate…? Was that really how he intended to behave - like there wasn’t anything wrong, like they were just having a morning coffee in the cafeteria and discussing what would be on the next exam?

Maybe… she was just too hardheaded to understand. Kageyama was like that too, wasn’t he? Maybe it was more… normal than just sitting around sulking.

Still- that sitting around sulking image was _her_ own idea of normalcy. In that case, it would be fine to just stick with it, wouldn’t it? It wasn’t her responsibility to keep everyone else chipper - not that she could imagine doing a good job at it even if it had been.

She almost bit her tongue when Takahashi directed another question at her, and her brain didn’t even register it at first.

“Say… Yokoyama-san… Did- Did you have a wish of some kind that you really wanted to see granted…?”

Takahashi flinched when she turned to look at him, and she realised she might’ve been glaring; she made an effort to soften her expression. That kind of topic… was a lot more tense, but at the same time, it also felt more natural to discuss.

“I’m… sorry, is that too personal?” Takahashi backed off immediately; that kind of courtesy was certainly another point in his favor, and Yokoyama found herself fidgeting with her hands in her lap. “I was… just wondering, I guess. Because you said you came here for a different reason, right…? To investigate… or something…”

Yokoyama slowly let her hands curl into loose fists.

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have anything… but in hindsight, it’s probably for the best that I didn’t leave it to Fujinomiya or Izumi. I don’t have a single bit of trust left in them…”

Takahashi seemed to just stare for a few seconds.

“So… even you have something like that…”

“Well, of course I do. That’s normal, I think,” Yokoyama averted her gaze to stare at the floor.

Maybe… if it was just a stranger instead of someone like Kageyama…

“…I have to clear my older brother’s name,” she finally spoke, albeit in a hesitant manner. “He got mixed up in the wrong crowd and was wrongfully convicted of a crime he didn’t commit.”

_And I believed it._

She kept that part to herself, though.

Stubbornly keeping her gaze down, she didn’t check to see the others’ reactions - it was just something she had to get off her chest, so she wanted to make it feel as little personal as possible.

“I won’t tell you anything else, though,” she quickly continued before any of the other two could get a word in, pursing her lips momentarily. “In any case, I’m not going to kill anyone, so you can rest assured about that. You should already know that by now, though.”

Maybe they were just words - maybe they weren’t going to be reassuring enough on their own. Still, she felt the need to make her determination clear whenever she could, partially to encourage herself, and partially to trust the slim chance that it might actually help somehow.

She exhaled softly before she hopped to her feet.

“I’m going to go talk to Kageyama-kun after all. If it’s not too much to ask, could you take care of Nakajima-kun in the meantime?”

Despite Takahashi being about to nod, though, she didn’t get to go through with her plans.

Instead of his usual way of communicating through the monitors, the cat had chosen to renew his methods; a hole opened up in the floor, a large, metal container emerging from it, similar to an elevator. It opened up to reveal said cat lounging around inside of it on top of a padded chair, and Yokoyama was caught so off-guard she stumbled on her feet.

“What great timing! It’s almost like you read my mind, Yokoyama-nyan!” he exclaimed while Nakajima proceeded to crawl behind one of the sofas. “I was just about to bring up Kageyama-nyan as well!”

“…What do you want?” she let out a heavy sigh, albeit still very much on her guard even with her annoyed attitude. Somehow, even after the initial shock of the unusual manner of the encounter wore off, her nerves didn’t soothe themselves, the tension in her body starting to rise instead.

Surely, she was just being paranoid - but she wasn’t sure if she had the luxury of allowing herself to conclude that.

“Always the saaame blunt questions… You’re not much for some friendly banter, are you?” Mononeko whined. “That’s a pretty big shame… I might’ve been more willing to believe your lie if you’d just been nicer to me…”

Yokoyama froze.

The bad feeling had been justified in the end.

Of course they wouldn’t be able to fool an A.I.… What had she been thinking? Kageyama’s overly optimistic attitude must’ve gotten to her far too much.

“…Yes, so? You’re not here to get revenge or something, are you? You did play along with it…” Yokoyama gave him a flat stare, still trying to somehow turn the situation around.

“Revenge?” Mononeko repeated the word with a snicker. “Of course not! It was pretty entertaining. I’m just here to deliver Sakurauchi-nyan’s well-deserved punishment for not returning yet.”

“W-what… about me-?” Nakajima squeaked from his hiding place, seemingly afraid to even ask - Mononeko only waved his paw in dismissal, though.

“Oh, I don’t care about you. You did eventually come back, after all,” he purred. “You’ve been on good behavior.”

Nakajima let out an audible sigh of relief.

“Sakurauchi-san isn’t here, though…” Yokoyama bit her lip. “There’s not much you can do about that.”

“Oh, I know that, of course. But you know how teachers tend to punish the whole class to deter troublemakers?”

_Oh, goddammit._

“What does Kageyama-kun have to do with this…?” Takahashi finally spoke up, shifting around nervously; Yokoyama clicked her tongue.

She should’ve never let that idiot out of her sight for even a second.

“Well, well, well- It’s about the motive, you see,” Mononeko continued. “I figured now would be as good a time as any to finally put him out of the game. I mean- It’s just annoying to have a participant mess with the setup so much, you know? So I made sure to let a _few certain people_ know about the motive this time around ahead of time to politely ask them to fix this for me!”

He clapped his paws together before making the proper announcement.

“The motive this time is a choice! It’s either Kageyama-nyan, or the rest of you. I was going to set a time limit, of course, but it seemed that a certain someone was eager enough to just go right ahead and take action anyway.”

Takahashi got up from his seat.

“I’ll- I’ll go-“

“If you’re looking for the person in question, he should be on the second floor,” Mononeko cackled. “Be sure to look in the bedroom!”

Yokoyama rushed ahead before Takahashi could have.

It’s just a game- _It’s just a game._

Even so, it felt far too upsetting to be one. It had been so easy until now to just treat everything so matter of factly, but even if it wasn’t real, even if none of this was real, that didn’t stop her heart from racing as she sprinted up the stairs, almost tripping over herself a few times in the process.

Was this her fault? She _had_ been the one to suggest taking these actions… If only she’d been able to come up with something better…

She practically ripped the door open, not even caring if the other two were following behind her or not. Kageyama was already one to just draw trouble towards him somehow even without this, but despite that, she hadn’t been worried to this extent. How could she have been? His attitude was so easygoing and relaxed, and even when he was addressing things more seriously he still had an aura of reassuring confidence around him, like he was sure he’d somehow find a handle on any kind of problem that might arise.

And yet, this time, that wasn’t the case.

Yokoyama stood motionlessly in the doorway, her eyes first taking in the blood on the floor alongside the knife that had been dropped beside it, also dripping with red. The sight of the slumped over figure was strange, so much so that her brain couldn’t even comprehend it at first, attempting to correct it for her somehow, as though the boy was just simply taking a nap and was ready to hop back to his feet any second now.

His face wasn’t visible with his head lowered, but the bloodstained clothes and lack of movement told Yokoyama everything she needed to know - even so, she staggered closer after she snapped out of her trance, immediately reaching for his neck to check for a pulse.

Even after her hopes were crushed, her fingers found their way around his shoulders, digging into the skin tightly as she began to shake him, calling out his name over and over.

_Moron, I didn’t give you permission to die on me like that._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow crow is still alive?? who wouldve thought  
> ok Listen its only gonna be like 4 chapters altogether so might as well try to get it done, im already too close and i already know everything i want to write in it so


	18. Chapter 3, Deadly Life - Split down the middle

She continued gripping the unmoving boy’s shoulders tightly even when she felt a hand tap her own, despite all the lightheadedness that had flooded her at once. Her gaze was on the floor, though she closed her eyes tightly soon enough to hide from all the blood. Her chest felt tight, as though she couldn’t breathe properly, and she felt a small sob tug at her vocal chords. She held it down anyway, having just enough self-control not to lose it completely for the sake of everyone else, at least.

She slowly pulled her hands back before taking a deep breath and turning her head to look over her shoulder.

Takahashi was giving her a concerned stare while also clearly trying to avoid looking at Kageyama, and Nakajima was peering into the room from the presumed safety of the doorway, reluctant to come inside.

She must’ve missed the body discovery announcement.

“…I’m sorry.”

She steeled herself before she turned back to the body.

“N-no, that’s… You don’t have anything to apologise for…” Takahashi objected weakly, but Yokoyama didn’t respond to it. She bit her lip as she contemplated what to do before she settled on the - hopefully - best course of action.

“I’d like both of you to investigate with me,” she proclaimed. “By this point… it would be the best if we stayed together. Let’s make sure to check everything in this room before we look for Aragaki-san and Natsume-kun.”

She would’ve expected Nakajima to object.

“A-as if I’d want to be w-walking around alone… at a time l-like this…” he squeaked out, finally stepping inside. Fair enough - all three of them had alibis, so they were probably the only ones he could trust not to stab him in the back while they were on their own.

Yokoyama leaned closer to the body so she could take a better look.

As far as she could tell, he wasn’t injured anywhere aside from what she assumed was a stab wound from the knife on the floor. The blood was still wet and sticky - it made her stomach turn, but there wasn’t much she could do about it now that she’d already kneeled in it. She’d just have to clean herself up afterwards.

Kageyama’s eyes were closed, one of his hands laid in his lap. His other hand was wedged between his back and the wall - she tugged him forward slightly to be able to examine it properly, and found that his fingers were curled into a fist around what appeared to be some kind of fabric.

She pried his fingers off one by one carefully, trying her best to ignore how cold his hand was.

The fabric turned out to be a black glove.

Aside from herself, the only other person with a glove like that was…

She flinched as a loud thud sounded from behind her, and she turned around to see Takahashi frozen with one of his hands still holding onto the closet door, staring at the floor with a sort of deer-in-headlights expression. Yokoyama just now noticed the chair that had been dragged over from one side of the room to another before her eyes trailed down to the ground, settling on the slumped over body of Natsume.

Nakajima shrieked as he crawled underneath one of the beds.

Once Takahashi snapped out of his trance, he gestured with his hands clumsily.

“The- The door was blocked by that chair, so-“

“…He’s not dead, is he?” Yokoyama narrowed her eyes as she listened for a possible announcement just a little longer, but nothing came. Natsume must’ve been fine then… for the most part. She took one last look at Kageyama before she got to her feet.

Takahashi finally kneeled down to carefully turn Natsume over. The latter appeared to have been unconscious, though he was starting to slowly stir awake, letting out a faint moan.

Yokoyama picked his glasses up from where they’d fallen on the floor.

“Was he locked in there…?”

“I think so…” Takahashi gave a small nod, for now simply cradling Natsume in his arms. “I thought it was strange that someone would block off the door like that, so I looked inside to find him like this…”

Yokoyama’s expression darkened.

“…Well, he’s clearly a suspect. Don’t let him out of your sight for even a second.”

“Even though he’s like this…?” Takahashi started back at her sheepishly, but she was already walking over to the bed she saw Nakajima hide under, crouching down to take a look.

“And you- If you’re going to go somewhere like that, _please_ do me a favor and at least examine it. There could be vital evidence anywhere in this room.”

Though she’d already set her eyes on a certain person, even if she shouldn’t have.

The suffocating feeling in her chest slowly began turning into anger.

“What d-do you _think_ I’m doing-!?” came the response, though it was much too panicked for Yokoyama to really believe it; she frowned before she straightened up once again, proceeding to wipe the blood off herself with the sheets without thinking too much of it.

 _Whatever…_ By now it didn’t matter.

She let her hands curl into fists by her side as she circled around the room, examining every little corner to make sure she wouldn’t miss anything - she only headed for the closet again afterwards, making sure to take a look in there as well.

She had to dig around for a little while, but she did find something quite peculiar that she was fully certain shouldn’t have been there - an empty syringe, buried underneath a shirt that had fallen off. She took it in her hands, turning it around, pursing her lips before turning on her heels to quickly approach Kageyama.

She didn’t think she’d need to do this, but she had to make sure she wasn’t going to miss anything, no matter how small.

She hesitated for a moment as her fingers gripped his jacket lightly, then mumbled an apology under her breath as she pulled it off.

“What are you doing…?” Takahashi glanced between her and Natsume - who was still not properly awake yet -, and Yokoyama almost snapped before realising the question was probably pretty natural from his point of view.

“I want to check Kageyama-kun’s body for injuries.”

“Injuries…? His clothes aren’t bloody anywhere else, though, are they?”

“I’m looking for a mark,” she clicked her tongue. “Though I don’t know if I can find it…”

Then again, she had to try anyway.

However… as she thought, she didn’t end up finding anything. She looked back down at the syringe in her hand - either this hadn’t been used on him, or she just missed something, careful as she tried to be. Either way, there wasn’t much she could do _now_ \- she just had to be sure to remember this for the future.

Nakajima was frantically crawling out from his hiding place when she stepped away from Kageyama.

Her eyes immediately focused on the shirt he was holding in one of his hands.

“H-here…” he handed it over before proceeding to take several steps backwards, seemingly trying to check whether any blood had gotten on him while he was becoming acquintainted with the floor. “It was under the bed… D-don’t ask me why.”

At first it was pretty difficult to tell, considering that almost the entire fabric had turned red due to being drenched in blood, but as Yokoyama squinted at it, she grew more and more sure of her realisation.

“This belongs to Aragaki-san, doesn’t it?”

She found herself grinding her teeth.

 _Aragaki_ wouldn’t do that, would she…? There were only so many of them left by now, though, and with three of them having proper alibis-

“Aragaki-san-? Oh no…” Takahashi paled a little. “You don’t think- Is she okay…? Shouldn’t we go look for her now? If that’s her blood…”

“Why would she have hid her shirt here if that was the case, Takahashi-kun?” her voice came out just a little too cold, but she couldn’t be bothered to fix it. “It’s obviously someone else’s blood, isn’t it? There’s no need to hide someone’s bloody clothes if we’re just going to find the body it belongs to later… It would only make sense that she hid it here herself because she thought it would make her look suspicious.”

Takahashi opened and closed his mouth a few times, but no sound came out.

“She’s… n-not wrong, you know,” Nakajima muttered, eyes on the floor. “But then again… it also m-might be someone framing her- I’m… not s-so sure about that, though…”

“But… Aragaki-san wouldn’t do… _that_ ,” Takahashi’s face reflected how conflicted he must’ve been feeling, the unsteady rhythm of his voice only adding further to that impression. Still, he wasn’t going to suspect Aragaki just from that; he made it clear enough. “Didn’t she get along with Kageyama-kun…? And… she got so mad when Hayama-san had died…”

“Well- You w-wouldn’t be able to take her shirt w-without overpowering her… and… y-you’ve seen how strong she is…” Nakajima insisted, slowly becoming more certain of his conclusion. “Besides… how would Natsume even l-lock himself in there, huh? It’s… It’s either him or her… by this point…”

Takahashi stayed silent for a little while before he spoke up in a tone much firmer.

“…I know you told us not to split up, but I’m going to look for Aragaki-san. If she needs help, I… I’m not going to let her die too,” he stated before gently placing Natsume onto the nearest bed, bowing his head to Yokoyama afterwards. “Please take care of Natsume-kun and Nakajima-kun for the time being.”

He didn’t even wait for an answer, promptly turning around to leave the room rather quickly, letting the door close behind him.

Yokoyama felt like punching a wall, and she wasn’t even entirely sure why.

* * *

 

Though she tried her best to wait patiently for Natsume to awake properly to make sure that his testimony wouldn’t be muddled or unclear in any way, she still had a hard time controlling herself, and she drummed with her fingers on her thigh impatiently. Takahashi had gone to check up on Aragaki - in her room, presumably -, so investigating anywhere else wouldn’t have been necessary… not when the number of suspects was so small. Getting Natsume to talk before the trial was much more important.

Once her patience ran thin enough, Yokoyama grabbed Natsume by the collar very carefully, pulling him up into a sitting position.

“Would you be so kind as to provide me with some explanation, _Natsume-kun_?”

Nakajima tried his best to stay out of the conversation, somewhat intimidated by the menacing aura she was emitting.

Natsume stared at her blankly for a few seconds, eyes still relatively unfocused, glasses crooked on his face, but he soon reached up with a hand to clumsily straighten them out.

“Ah… Yokoyama-san. Yes, you may certainly request that… Do forgive me for a moment, though,” he brushed some of his hair aside before cradling the side of his head softly.

Yokoyama’s grip tightened ever so slightly, but she made an effort to lower her voice to its usual volume.

“You… would you happen to be the one who-“

“I have not laid a hand on Kageyama-kun, if that is what you are implying,” his reply came without hesitation. “I did happen to witness the crime, however, so I am sure my account will be enough to convince you, even if you won’t believe me just yet.”

“…I have no way of coming to a proper conclusion at the moment, so all I can do is refrain from simply guessing,” Yokoyama narrowed her eyes. “But… it’s not like I can stop myself from feeling certain emotions. _Please_ don’t test me right now.”

“…I was not intending to do such a thing in the first place,” Natsume sighed.

He took a few more moments to compose himself and fix up his clothes before he cleared his throat, making a low, outdrawn humming sound as he tapped his chin.

“Let me see… I suppose I should start by explaining what lead up to the event to transpire to begin with.”

He clasped his hands together.

“After we parted ways with the rest of you, we stayed in this room for the entire time. Kageyama-kun and Aragaki-san intended to discuss some things between each other - Aragaki-san, however, was not very pleased about my presence, so she ordered me to stand in the corner while they conversed. Unfortunately I did not pay attention to too much of what they talked about, since I had decided to take a short nap instead.”

He let his hands drop in his lap as he tilted his head a little.

“I was woken up by Aragaki-san raising her voice, and though I was, admittedly, a tad dazed for a few seconds, I did witness her stabbing Kageyama-kun. He dropped to the floor in the same spot as well. I intended to immediately notify your group, of course, but when Aragaki-san took notice of me, she subdued me before knocking me out… and before I knew it, I found myself in this position.”

He took a small bow, as though to signal that his explanation was over.

“As for what happened while I was unconscious… I would not be able to tell you. I apologise.”

Yokoyama pursed her lips; she would have to wait until the trial before she could verify anything Natsume was saying.

For now, though… even if she couldn’t necessarily put faith in all of his statements…

“…Do you at least remember part of what Aragaki-san and Kageyama-kun were talking about?”

“Hm…” his gaze strayed off to the side as he took his time to search his memory. “I believe it mostly revolved around things only Kageyama-kun knew. Aragaki-san was… rather eager for him to enlighten her about a few details of the past killing game, if you will.”

Yokoyama took a moment to think that over.

“…I see. Is that everything you know?”

“It would seem so,” Natsume nodded his head.

Yokoyama slowly let go of him as she mulled over everything she just heard.

“…I need to go after Takahashi-kun.”

“You- You’re not serious… are you-?” Nakajima couldn’t help but interrupt, flinching a little at the glare that was sent his way. “I m-mean- just… based on everything we found here, I d-don’t think Natsume is lying…”

“You’d make a terrible detective, Nakajima-kun,” Yokoyama’s gaze darkened before she turned away to head towards the door. “I’m going to have to hear both sides of the story to be able to examine the situation in an objective manner. I would hate to be executed with the rest of you.”

Before she could leave, though, Nakajima called after her with a small squeak.

It didn’t seem like he wanted to be left alone with Natsume, even if he appeared to be on his side for the time being.

“I- I’ll go… with you…”

“…In that case, let’s all go then,” she grasped the doorknob as she glanced over her shoulder. “I wouldn’t want one of the suspects to be left on their own.”

Natsume didn’t react to the accusation with too much emotion, simply pushing himself to his feet and carefully following after the two, albeit swaying on his feet noticeably in the process. He could’ve landed face first on the floor, though, for all Yokoyama cared.

She sped up her steps, not really paying attention to whether or not the other two were following her or not.

The door opened just as she was about to reach out to it, and Takahashi almost ended up walking into her, quickly apologising as she stumbled back. Aragaki stood behind him with an almost apprehensive stance - most notably, she was completely uninjured. She must’ve changed her clothes as well, because she was both fully dressed and lacking in bloodstains anywhere on her outfit.

As soon as she saw Natsume, her eyes narrowed, and her expression shifted to one that - while being harder to read - practically caused the air around them to crackle with how much malice it was radiating. Stepping past a sheepish Takahashi, she clicked her tongue.

“So… you brought him along just like that. Without restraining him or anything.”

“We were pretty short on time,” Yokoyama responded simply, crossing her arms. “Besides, I doubt he’s in a state right now where he’d be capable of causing serious trouble.”

“That’s pretty funny for you to say… You know, considering he killed Kageyama-san.”

Her tone was sharp, and her glare didn’t even soften for a second as she regarded Natsume with clear contempt in her eyes.

“That is a rather lofty accusation…” Natsume adjusted his glasses. “You do realise I can dispute your claim quite easily, do you not?”

“You’re just lying through your teeth; you can’t seriously think anyone here would believe you,” Aragaki cocked her head to the side. “You’ve already attempted murder before, haven’t you? Even if that wasn’t the case, Takahashi-san should be able to verify the reason why I cannot be the culprit.”

“Uhm-“ Takahashi loomed over the conversation with a slightly hunched back, finally finding a moment to interrupt. “I found her handcuffed to her bed when I went to look for her. Without… a shirt on…”

He yelped as he received a jab to his side.

“ _Perish the thought_ ,” Aragaki raised her voice slightly, clearing her throat afterwards. “I have recounted my side of the events to Takahashi-san, but I don’t mind repeating it to you. I won’t fault you for finding me suspicious until then, insulting as it is…”

“Well, now, that hardly qualifies as an alibi,” Natsume raised a brow. “Not only do I possess similar evidence pointing to my innocence, I believe mine is much more solid. You could have simply handcuffed yourself.”

“Oh, and _you’re_ somehow different?”

“You are not implying I knocked myself unconscious somehow, are you?”

“It’s not as if you wouldn’t be capable of it.”

“Would you guys stop bickering for a damn second!?” Yokoyama snapped, taking a deep breath afterwards to calm her nerves. “If I have to compare and contrast your testimonies, I’d prefer to do it without having to deal with your constant interruptions, _thank you very much_.”

Aragaki quietly huffed.

“H-hey…” Nakajima spoke up from the back, eyes nervously darting around. “What about Sakurauchi-san…?”

“Eh-? You’re not accusing her, are you?” Takahashi blinked, and Nakajima shook his head quite vehemently.

“Obviously not, y-you idiot- No, I… Are we j-just going to leave her, or…?”

“There isn’t much we can do now, is there?” Yokoyama scoffed. “The closet is back to normal anyway. She’s stuck on her own until she finds a finds a way out herself.”

Nakajima shrunk back.

“Either way, should that really be what you’re prioritizing right now? I think the current situation requires just a little more concern, Nakajima-kun,” she placed her hands on her hips. “Right now what matters the most is who killed Kageyama-kun.”

“I… think he knows that,” Takahashi tried to carefully soothe her anger, and Yokoyama turned her head away with a begrudging shrug of her shoulders.

They didn’t have much time left to argue, however - before they could decide to investigate anywhere else, the monitors nearby turned on, signaling the trial that was soon to begin. So they wouldn’t even get a file this time around, huh… That was irritating, to say the least. Yokoyama supposed she got to examine the body properly, if nothing else, but the possibility of her having missed something was still there, and the thought of it irritated her to no end.

She was almost tempted to begin biting one of her fingernails, but she’d grown out of that habit back in high school.

She grabbed onto the nearest person’s sleeve to begin dragging them towards the stairs on reflex, which just so happened to be Takahashi.

“Let’s go. The faster we get this done with, the better.”

Nakajima hesitated as he glanced around a couple of times, stumbling out of Aragaki’s way when she pushed past him, then stepping aside further as Natsume followed suit, only rushing after everyone once they were nearly out of sight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *blasts the scrum debate theme*


	19. Chapter 3, Class Trial

“Will you two actually cooperate with the rest of us instead of continuously insulting each other?” Yokoyama gripped her podium tightly, her patience wearing thin bit by bit. Aragaki and Natsume were still glaring at each other after Natsume had put forward his testimony for the second time; fortunately they were on opposite sides of the room, otherwise they would have surely progressed to the physical stage of their confrontation.

Neither Takahashi nor Nakajima seemed like the ideal person to break up an argument either, especially not between those two.

“Aragaki-san, I _need_ you to explain your side of the argument for me to be able to compare and contrast it to what Natsume-kun said,” Yokoyama practically hissed, getting increasingly impatient. “If you really care about finding Kageyama-kun’s killer, you _will_ follow along my request.”

Aragaki crossed her arms with a loud huff, seemingly swallowing insults.

“I trust that Takahashi-san will intervene if he picks up on any contradictions between my testimony and what I have told him - not that there will be any.”

“Oh- I can do that, I think,” Takahashi quickly responded, though he didn’t seem to understand all the implications of it at first. He seemed to be sort of out of it in general, but at least he was still trying to put in some effort on his part, meek as it appeared.

Yokoyama let out a deep sigh.

“The first half of what Natsume told you would be correct,” Aragaki stated, sending another narrow-eyed look in the direction of said person. “We did stay in Kageyama-san’s room the whole time. I wanted to talk to him one-on-one, so I told Natsume not to eavesdrop.”

Her frown deepened as she continued.

“We got into an argument at one point, but the motive was announced before we could get anywhere with it. At that point, Natsume snuck up on me and stabbed me with some kind of needle - I lost consciousness shortly thereafter, and only woke up when Takahashi-san found me.”

“W-where would Natsume have even gotten a needle from…?” Nakajima clicked his tongue, only to be silenced by a dark look directed towards him this time.

“As much as I hate to admit it, both Kageyama-san and I were too occupied to pay proper attention to him at the time. We had left the door to the hallway open, so he could have easily entered the infirmary to pick up anything he would have needed.”

Yokoyama felt her blood pressure rise, but she held down the sharp remark that was about to slip out. She had to save everything like that for later - right now, the number one priority was solving the case; she couldn’t afford to waste time by starting another argument of her own.

Nakajima, on the other hand, had no qualms about quietly muttering in disapproval.

Aragaki only paused briefly, seeming to hesitate.

“You found a knife at the scene of the crime, didn’t you? That one was mine. I took it from the kitchen just in case… for self-defense, since I couldn’t find a pocketknife anywhere.”

 _Well_ , that really was the only possibility. Kageyama wouldn’t have brought a knife with himself, especially not a kitchen knife like that, and Natsume was never left alone in the vicinity of the kitchen, so the only person left was Aragaki. It still seemed somewhat unusual, since aside from Takahashi she was definitely the person with the most physical strength out of everyone here, so she could have defended herself without a weapon just fine more than likely.

Either way, a comment like that would have just derailed the discussion; Yokoyama kept it to herself.

“The handcuffs were from Natsume-kun… probably, right?” Takahashi suggested.

That’s right… He wasn’t handcuffed when they found him again. He could have picked the lock on his own, if they weren’t paying enough attention to him. It wasn’t like there wasn’t anything in that room that he could’ve used for that either… and he seemed like he would be able to figure that out on his own.

Either way, nobody had come downstairs for the key, so whoever removed the handcuffs had to have picked them open.

“I did find a syringe in the closet Natsume-kun had been locked into… but I need more proof than that to believe it was used on you,” Yokoyama pursed her lips. She had to entertain every idea equally at the very least, until she could figure out which ones would be proven false. “You should have a mark somewhere on your body… alongside bruising. Puncture wounds like that, unless taken care of properly, will always leave a mark that’s easy to find.”

Remembering that gave her a bit of relief, since Kageyama had no bruising like that anywhere… then again, neither of the two mentioned that possibility to begin with, so there was hardly any sense in worrying about it by now in the first place.

Aragaki gathered up her hair, lifting it to reveal a dark bruise alongside the side of her neck.

“Is that enough proof for you?”

She almost seemed sarcastic; she must’ve still been really frustrated about being a suspect. Still, that didn’t make having to deal with her when she was like this just a bit too irritating.

Yokoyama held down whatever outburst she was about to have.

“…She c-could have just done that to herself, though… there’s no proof that Natsume was the one who did that,” Nakajima remarked carefully, almost crouching as he tried to hide behind his own podium. “She d-did say she brought the knife…”

That wasn’t wrong… They should have checked the infirmary… but then again, there was no guarantee they’d find a definitive clue; it wasn’t as if anyone here memorized the placements of bottles and other equipment, so they more than likely wouldn’t have been able to verify whether someone had taken a tranquilizer or something anyway.

“Uhm…” Takahashi bit his lip, “just to make sure… the culprit can’t be Kageyama-kun, right?”

“W-what, are you saying he killed himself?”

“Kageyama-kun wouldn’t do that, don’t be stupid,” Yokoyama shot him down before she could even think it through.

Even if he would have gotten stabbed, and wanted to defend the killer… he wouldn’t have finished the job himself. He would have tried to find a way around it, even with the motive and all. Yeah, that’s right… he was a stubborn idiot, after all.

Takahashi shrunk back a little.

“R-right… Sorry.”

“Of course Sakurauchi-san is clear too,” Nakajima added quickly. “She wouldn’t sink to that level like the rest of you…”

 _Right_ , of course that’s the kind of thing Nakajima would end up blurting out.

“There’s no need for that kind of lousy defense, _Nakajima-kun,_ ” Yokoyama narrowed her eyes. “We have two suspects right here, accusing each other, and one of them is telling the truth. At least one of them is innocent, and the innocent one would have no reason to lie, therefore one of these two is the culprit.”

“…That too…” Nakajima muttered.

At least he backed down fast.

“Besides, there is more evidence… that implicates both of them, and we can’t move on until we figure out which one is false.”

Yokoyama took a deep breath to regain her composure - or at least try to.

“I notice you’re missing one of your gloves, Natsume-kun,” she noted, placing her hands on her hips. “I found the missing half of the pair in Kageyama-kun’s grip. He was holding onto it very tightly; it would be rather difficult to achieve that same effect by placing it into his hand after he had passed away.”

Even if his hand was crammed behind his back, the body was slumped forward, so there wouldn’t have been enough pressure on his fingers for her to have to pry them off afterwards. Besides, neither of the suspects were in his vicinity when they were found, and they would have hardly risked being found prematurely by staying there for too long.

“So… Kageyama-kun must have been gripping that while he died…?” Takahashi blinked.

“Precisely,” Yokoyama nodded.

Natsume stayed silent, wearing his usual polite smile, seemingly waiting for a question he could answer - said question never arrived, though.

“More than that… Nakajima-kun found one of Aragaki-san’s shirts under the bed, covered in blood. Aragaki-san… could have hid that there because she wanted to avoid being suspected, but Natsume-kun could have also been the one to place it there. It’s not enough to definitively implicate someone on its own.”

“If Aragaki-san wanted to hide it, wouldn’t she have picked a different spot for it…?” Takahashi frowned slightly; Yokoyama shrugged her shoulders.

“Either way, whichever one of them it was can’t be proven or disproven, so there’s no need to discuss it for longer.”

They had to rely on some other kind of evidence, something that would actually point to the killer…

“W-well, Natsume couldn’t have possibly locked himself into the closet,” Nakajima glanced between the others. “T-that… should singlehandedly p-prove that he’s the one telling the truth…”

“Uhm… I don’t think Natsume-kun locked himself in there, yeah,” Takahashi quietly affirmed that. “The door was completely closed before I moved the chair…”

“…Takahashi-kun,” Yokoyama furrowed her brows, “just to make sure, there wasn’t anything strange about that chair before you moved it, right?”

“Huh? No, it seemed pretty normal,” Takahashi shook his head slowly. “Uhm… The closet seemed pretty normal too… and you said you examined that too, right? So… if I missed something, I think you would have found it.”

“I was wondering if there was a possibility that Natsume-kun moved that chair himself…” Yokoyama’s frown only deepened, “but he couldn’t have done it the easy way… with string or something. The only reason the chair was capable of blocking the door in the first place was because it was heavy, so you would need to either move it with your hands, or with a sturdier tool.”

“B-but… if the door was closed completely, t-there’s no way a tool like that would have fit through a gap…” Nakajima spoke up again; he appeared to be insisting in a pretty stubborn manner. “B-because, you know, it was paper-thin…”

“There was nothing else that was off about the room aside from everything we have already mentioned…” Yokoyama closed her eyes as she recalled the scene, confirming it for herself further. “I don’t think he could have set up some complicated mechanism for it. The only thing I can think of is that someone else locked him in there.”

“See, s-so it really is Aragaki after a- _Eek!_ ” Nakajima proceeded to duck out of her sight.

“…You are all forgetting about one more possibility,” Aragaki sighed, cocking her head to the side sharply. “Even if Natsume didn’t lock himself inside the closet, there’s still one more person who could’ve done that aside from me. This won’t be enough to prove that it was me.”

“Someone else…?” Takahashi looked all around the room, his gaze settling on one person at a time. “It wasn’t one of us, right? Because… the rest of us have alibis.”

Huh… Now that she mentioned it…

“I’m talking about Sakurauchi-san,” Aragaki raised her voice only a little, lifting one of her hands, presumably to slam it down soon after; she paused before lowering it, straightening her posture. “Just because she isn’t here doesn’t mean she isn’t involved. She’s much taller than Natsume as well, so it’s not unthinkable that she could have subdued him.”

“ _W-well_ , what reason would Natsume have t-to say that it was you, then-?” Nakajima interrupted once again.

“ _Obviously_ to make you guys think I’m the culprit, you-“ she aggressively combed her fingers through her hair as she cut herself off. “ _Regardless_ , he would have had to keep quiet about it either way. He would end up losing his alibi and making himself seem more suspicious, so of course he wasn’t going to tell anybody.”

“…You were unconscious by then, weren’t you? So you would have no way of knowing…” Yokoyama clicked her tongue as she weighted each option in her head, but her thought process was cut off by Takahashi before she could even get close to reaching some kind of conclusion.

“Uhm… Isn’t it also possible that Kageyama-kun could have locked him in there…?” he suggested carefully.

“Natsume-kun would have had to drag Aragaki over to her room first…” Yokoyama shot him down after a moment of thinking. “I don’t think that’s very likely.”

“Well… it’s possible that he was just too weak to follow after them… so he had to wait for Natsume-kun to come back… maybe…?”

Even if it wasn’t technically impossible, Yokoyama still had a hard time wrapping her brain around that; she felt a rush of relief when she finally realised how she could refute that, finally reaching a point of certainty.

“No, there wasn’t any blood around the closet. Even if Kageyama-kun would have tried to stop the bleeding by clutching a cloth or something to his wound, some blood would have still gotten around the area, especially since he would have had to struggle with Natsume-kun.”

Her gaze slowly shifted towards Natsume.

“Natsume-kun’s clothes are all dark, so small bloodstains might be easy to hide… but I’m sure we would have found at least some blood on him if he and Kageyama-kun struggled like that. If he simply stabbed Kageyama-kun, he would have had an easier time keeping his clothes clean.”

She lifted a hand to point at his gloveless hand.

“He could have rolled his sleeves up, so the only article of clothing that would have been likely to get bloody was his glove… which Kageyama-kun happened to be holding. It was already going to have blood on it because of Kageyama-kun’s injury.”

“We have established that the glove was not planted there as evidence,” Aragaki decided to take lead in the debate next. “Therefore we can conclude that Kageyama-san willingly held onto it… which he would have no reason to do if Natsume was innocent, since it would only implicate him falsely.”

“If Natsume-kun stabbed Kageyama-kun, it’s likely Kageyama-kun tried to resist in some way,” Yokoyama noted. “It’s possible he reflexively reached for his hand, but was only able to grab onto the glove.”

“…Ah, allow me to make an objection.”

All eyes turned to Natsume as he tilted his head slightly.

“Your reasoning does indeed make sense, so I will not fault you for it,” he took a small bow. “However… I believe you may be forgetting one very important detail here. That is… the relationship between the victim and Aragaki-san.”

“What are _you_ getting at?” Aragaki scoffed, looking like she was ready to leap over her podium and punch him in the face. Natsume adjusted his glasses.

“Kageyama-kun was quite fond of you, was he not? Is it not possible that he was simply trying to defend you and assisted you in planting fake evidence?”

“Kageyama-kun wouldn’t do that…!” Takahashi interjected before Aragaki could, looking almost desperate. “Because… Because if Aragaki-san really was the killer and we voted for Natsume-kun, everyone but Aragaki-san would die. Kageyama-kun isn’t… the kind of person who would do that.”

He must’ve been trying his best to maintain a hopeful image of as many people as possible, with an attitude like that.

“Well, I am not so sure about that…” Natsume gave a thin smile. “Considering the circumstances… I do not think the scenario is so black and white.”

The circumstances…

Yeah, that’s right… Yokoyama had gotten so wound up she’d almost forgotten: they weren’t in the real world. By now, they had obtained definitive proof for it, and the only person still unaware of it was Takahashi. If somebody were to die here, they could just be resurrected, so to speak…

Even so, she didn’t want to bring herself to doubt Kageyama, to doubt the one person she had come to trust in this ridiculous killing game… He wouldn’t mislead her like that.

She didn’t even want to consider the possibility; the thought alone left a deeply bitter taste in her mouth.

“…We’re stuck again, then. Would you care to enlighten me with further clues if you really are innocent, Natsume-kun?” she asked sharply. “Even if you can’t think of something right now, if you aren’t the killer, your life is also at stake here. So… _start thinking_.”

“…What if- Uhm…”

Takahashi bit his sentence just barely after it began, fidgeting nervously at the sudden pressure directed towards him.

“If- If my idea is stupid, you can just say so… but… couldn’t Kageyama-kun have also used the syringe to knock Natsume-kun out?” he bit his lip. “Uhm, I think… after Natsume-kun dragged Aragaki-san off, it’s possible Kageyama-kun could have injected him similarly… and if he was trying to keep himself from bleeding out, he would have clutched something to his wound, right? He could have used Aragaki-san’s shirt, since it was already bloody… then hid it under the bed to make it harder to find for us.”

“Which would mean it wouldn’t be strange for Natsume-kun’s clothes to be clean…” Yokoyama finished the thought automatically; fortunately, the action let Takahashi calm down a little.

“Y-yeah… That’s what I thought…”

“…Kageyama-kun would have been rendered immobile for a short period of time at the very least from the pain alone,” Aragaki placed a hand on her hip. “After the adrenaline kicks in, he would be capable of moving around… as long as the wound wasn’t deep enough to cause him to bleed out before that could happen. It’s also possible the entire dose wasn’t administered when Natsume-kun knocked me unconscious… I did manage to shove him away before I passed out.”

“In that case, Natsume-kun would also have a bruise on his body somewhere…” Yokoyama narrowed her eyes. “…Just so you know, I won’t accept it if you try to claim you forgot to mention it.”

“W-wait, you’re- you’re not suggesting t-that he _strips_ in front of us- _right_!?” Nakajima practically squeaked, already turning away from everyone else. “I c-can’t look at s-something like _that_!”

Yokoyama’s hands curled into fists by her side.

“Oh, I will not hesitate to strip Natsume-kun, if that’s what it takes. If he’s innocent, though, I’m sure he will be willing to inspect me of his own free will, in his own interest.”

That might have been an empty threat if she’d said it before, but she was dead serious now.

“…My, I suppose I have no choice but to come clean then,” Natsume exhaled a soft sigh. “I was hoping it would not have to come to this, but, alas…”

He rolled up one of his sleeves to reveal a dark bruise in the crook of his elbow.

“I was admittedly worried that it would make me look suspicious, so I have hid it until now. My apologies.”

Silence befell the room for several seconds.

“So… Is he, or isn’t he the culprit then-?” Takahashi finally broke it soon enough, looking to Yokoyama for an answer. “He did hide evidence…”

“Do forgive me for that,” Natsume’s regular smile returned as he unfolded his sleeve, smoothing it out afterwards. “I figured that since the victim and killer had cooperated, I would have to make up for my disadvantage by giving you all a little bit of a push in the right direction.”

“You’re _still_ on that…” Aragaki gripped her podium tightly. “Natsume, tell me… are you really desperate enough to cling to your lies until the bitter end? Is that really how you want to go down, all kicking and screaming like some kind of a brat? You should know when to admit defeat.”

“How amusing… Surely, you all would not risk your lives based in such a small piece of evidence. This much is hardly enough to convict me.”

That line did cause Yokoyama to hesitate.

Even if Kageyama looked up to Aragaki, there was no way to know that she really was the kind of person she was claiming to be. They couldn’t think with their emotions, not in this situation… Even if her chest felt heavy at the idea that she might have felt betrayed, she couldn’t simply toss it aside just like that.

Which one of these two was telling the truth in the end…? Natsume was the more suspicious one right now, but…

“Allow me to provide you with more information,” Natsume continued, “since the obstacle that has been preventing me from sharing this fact has been removed… As you may have realised, at the time of the murder, both of my sleeves were rolled up.”

He spread his arms to the side nonchalantly.

“Naturally, I was hoping I would be able to treat Kageyama-kun’s injury; I had removed one of my gloves as well, since blood would have stained the fabric quite badly.”

“You did all of that while you were still handcuffed…?” Takahashi questioned with a small frown.

“My hands may have been originally behind my back, but one can easily rectify that by stepping over their hands. Granted, it is not very comfortable.”

“So you’re implying Aragaki knocked you unconscious, then what, stabbed you with the needle and picked off your handcuffs?” Yokoyama raised a brow. Natsume nodded his head.

“I would have no way of being certain of that, of course, since I was not conscious, but it does seem to be the most likely scenario from my point of view.”

“Well… both of your testimonies hold up…” Yokoyama’s face scrunched up slightly in concentration. “Natsume-kun is still the one whose lie was found out, though. I suppose we can’t convict you just yet, but we can’t exactly suspect Aragaki-san over you either.”

She searched her memory for anything else she could use, replaying all the events that had taken place. She thought back to the crime scene, if there was anything that had been out of place, anything that would have seemed unusual, but just didn’t stand out enough for her to think much of until now.

Actually…

“Now that I think about it… We still haven’t talked about the motive, right?”

“The motive…? Oh, was that supposed to have been brought up? I assumed Aragaki-san was just making that up to suit her narrative…” Natsume remarked.

“…I guess you wouldn’t know about it if your side ended up being true,” Yokoyama sighed, crossing her arms. “I’m not really sure if we’ll gain anything from discussing it… but I don’t just want to ignore it. Especially since I can’t think of anything else…”

“But just the motive wouldn’t help this time, right…? I don’t like acknowledging it, but… I think either one of the two would have had an equal reason to kill Kageyama-kun, with a motive like that…” Takahashi lowered his head; Yokoyama reluctantly shrugged her shoulders.

“I know that… It’s not really the motive itself that I want to talk about.”

“T-then what…?” Nakajima mumbled. “That’s… the only part t-that matters, isn’t it-?”

“If it is not too much trouble, I _would_ like to be enlightened with the rest of you,” Natsume raised one of his hands as though he was requesting to speak in class. “I do not wish to be the only one left in the dark.”

Maybe explaining it to Natsume was going to jog her memory better too…

“I was together with Takahashi-kun and Nakajima-kun when we were… informed about it,” Yokoyama combed her hair out of the way. “If Kageyama-kun wouldn’t die within a certain amount of time, everyone else was going to be executed… presumably.”

“That time limit… was never actually set…” Nakajima added quietly.

“Oh… Mononeko said that was because the death had happened before a time limit could be set for it, right?” Takahashi blinked.

Yokoyama froze for a moment.

“That’s… right. I remember now. That… actually helps a lot.”

Before anyone else could talk, she lifted a hand to silence everyone else.

“Because- that would narrow down the time the motive could have been announced significantly…!” she started explaining, emphasizing her statements with hand gestures. “This means that the murder had to have taken place right after the motive was announced, right? And we haven’t left Natsume-kun on his own at all before that, which means that could have been the only time he’d have been informed about it. Regardless of whether or not he actually heard the announcement at that moment… he wouldn’t have been able to plan a murder ahead of time… and after the announcement had taken place, I’m certain neither Aragaki-san nor Kageyama-kun would have taken their eyes off him.”

“Ah- The monitors are on the same wall as the door that leads to the hallway, right?” Takahashi tried to recall. “So… Natsume-kun couldn’t have snuck out even if they were distracted by the announcement…”

“Yeah, and we can conclude this _for sure_ ,” Yokoyama almost swayed on her feet from the sudden rush of adrenaline she felt from finally finding a breakthrough; she took a deep breath. “This means Natsume-kun couldn’t have possibly killed Kageyama-kun… so we only have one person left.”

Everyone turned to look at Aragaki… but she stayed silent.

She was still wearing the same expression as before, her posture rigid and filled the same tension she’d been emanating ever since Takahashi found her; Yokoyama couldn’t even tell if she was still going to try to argue, or if she had finally given up.

Either way, her own emotions soon became a tangled up mess.

If Natsume wasn’t the culprit, if Aragaki really was the one who killed Kageyama… then he would’ve had to help her out with framing Natsume for it. His cooperation would’ve been absolutely necessary, which would mean… he would have had to mislead the rest of them on purpose.

Didn’t he say that he wanted to find a way to stop the killing game, though…? Or was he just lying about that too? If he already tried to cover up the case, could she even believe anything that he’d told her that she hadn’t verified for sure on her own? Was there even any use in trusting him like that in the first place…? Clearly… letting her emotions lead her instead of asserting full control over the situation had been a mistake.

She should have done a better job handling everything herself.

The more she thought about it, the more regret weighed her shoulders down, and the heavier her chest felt. She stopped registering everyone else’s words, only reacting with a flinch when Natsume gave her a small nudge; right, she still had to vote.

Performing the action mindlessly, as though her body was on autopilot, she scolded herself mentally for not being strong enough to bear everything right away.

* * *

The silence the courtroom had been enveloped in when Yokoyama went silent was short-lived, as everyone began talking over each other all at once. Nobody could argue with her deductions, though, and more than that… Aragaki, whom the majority of the questions had been directed at, made no more attempts to defend herself.

Even when it was time to vote, she raised no objections.

After the results had been confirmed, however… she finally moved.

Lifting one of her hands, she struck a ridiculous pose, her voice booming through the courtroom.

“Congratulations, peons! I suppose you mortals are capable of basic reasoning, at the end of the day. Alas, your sight is still clouded by the mist of confusion, which you have brought upon yourselves willingly by choosing to remain ignorant!”

She stunned everyone into silence momentarily.

“It is truly unfortunate; the true answer is within reach, but will remain undiscovered if your narrow-minded way of thinking remains,” she let out a low chuckle. “You will never be able to shake those shackles as long as your kind is destined to be so foolish. It is only of the goodness of my merciful heart that I have decided to lend a helping hand, but it will not prove to be enough on its own if you do not correct your ways.”

Even when the execution was about to begin, her attitude remained unchanged; she stood proudly with a straight back and a smirk, waiting in place.

She thought she had grown out of her old habits by now, but her nerves had prompted a defense mechanism to rise to the surface once more. She had made a promise, and she was willing to throw her life away if that was the only way she could keep it. Still, she chose not to give up on her hopes just yet, and right as the familiar collar was about to be locked around her neck… time came to a halt.

She felt a rush of relief as she came to realise the boy she’d decided to trust had turned out to be right after all.

In a matter of seconds, the entire world fell apart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> immmMMmm so close, soon ill be f r e e


	20. Intermission - Countdown

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i was going to title this chapter 4 but eh,,

It felt as though she was weightless, floating in some kind of empty space - she could not feel her body, and her thoughts were lacking coherency, but she could tell she wasn’t dreaming just from how vivid it was. She felt like she had sunk to the bottom of the ocean, only to start rising towards the surface again, the intense whiplash of it rattling her to her core.

The world collapsed all at once, then swiftly rebuilt itself.

When she came to, Yokoyama was kneeling on the floor - she was in some kind of hallway, the walls rapidly flickering and morphing into one another. The ground itself was stable enough for the most part, but her legs still trembled a little as she carefully got to her feet, feeling bewildered by what she was seeing.

Before she could try to further comprehend what was going on, she felt a hand pat her on the back lightly, and she let out a high-pitched shriek.

“Whoa there- Relax, it’s just me. You haven’t forgotten me while I was gone, yeah?”

She managed to turn around without falling over, only to be greeted by a familiar face.

His body and clothes were glitching just like their surroundings, as though somebody was rapidly shuffling between items on a character creation screen, but even then, he was still easily recognizable; Kageyama stood by leisurely with one of his hands shoved into his pockets, head cocked slightly to the side as he waited for her to be able to react.

She almost knocked them both to the ground as she leapt forward to crush him in a hug.

“Dumbass…! S-so you’re okay after all! To make me worry like that, I- I swear, you have no decency at all…!”

Fortunately due to her significantly shorter stature she didn’t do much damage to the taller boy, but it did take him a moment to regain his balance.

“Alright, alright-“ he grabbed onto her shoulders lightly, but firmly enough to distance her a little to be able to look into her eyes properly. “I’m fine, see? Don’t forget to breathe.”

She proceeded to jab him between the ribs with the side of her palm; he grimaced slightly.

“I demand an explanation,” she started, making an effort to control her own tone, though still somewhat lightheaded from the rush of adrenaline she’d just received. “You… You died back there, didn’t you? S-so how come you’re alright now? What even happened back there…? And- And what is all of this!?” she gestured wildly at the space they appeared to be in currently, her voice cracking a little at that last part. So many things were happening at once, she found it difficult to slow down.

Grabbing onto her wrist, Kageyama began pulling her after him, speeding up his steps as he picked a direction to go in.

“I can explain, but we need to get moving. We’ll be stuck here if we don’t find the way out.”

“ _Huh!?_ ” Yokoyama almost tripped over her own feet as she tried to make sense of what the hell that could possibly mean.

“You want it all in order, yeah?” Kageyama glanced back briefly. “We can talk while we walk.”

Even though she had no idea where they were even trying to head to, Yokoyama nodded weakly, noting with silent relief that at least one of them had a solid grasp of what they were supposed to be doing.

“Back there, during the killing game…” Kageyama’s hold on her tightened ever so slightly, “I was the only one who was told about the motive with Aragaki. And, y’know, I was really lost on what I was supposed to do - I mean, I came back here to help you guys out, but I was kinda worried I’d ended up doing more harm than good…”

Upon encountering a dead end, he swiftly changed directions, dragging her off on the next route.

“I kinda froze up for a little bit - Aragaki, though, she was super levelheaded, man. She snapped me out of my shock real good, I don’t even know what I would’ve done if she hadn’t been there.”

Another dead end - steady enough on her feet, Yokoyama pried his hand off of hers, finally able to follow behind him properly. She did need to walk quite a bit faster, though, shorter legs and all. Kageyama gave her a thumbs up.

“She was the one who suggested that we talk to Sakurauchi- We got _really_ lucky, honestly. She told us she’d been trying to implement a respawn function as a safety net, she would just need a bit more time to be able to do it properly… but, y’know, we didn’t have too much time with the motive and all - the A.I. told us we would only have a few hours at best… he was gonna set a concrete time limit once we got close enough or something.”

“That’s… weird,” Yokoyama frowned, finally finding her voice again. “That wouldn’t have given anyone enough time to plan out a… killing properly.”

“Sakurauchi said he was probably trying to just eject me from the program, one way or another. Either I’m the only one who lives and it forces me out that way, rebooting everything for you guys… or I die and can’t help out anymore. To be honest…” he let out a soft chuckle, “when she explained it like that… this might sound stupid, but it felt a bit nice to be considered that important. I really wasn’t sure if I was just getting in the way here or what.”

Yokoyama proceeded to reward him with another jab.

“Don’t say things like that…” she scolded him firmly. “You shouldn’t need that kind of messed up motive to reaffirm your position here, idiot.”

“I know, _mom_ , I already said you’d probably find it stupid,” he swiftly ran off with another laugh to check a route off to the side just in time to avoid receiving a chop, confirming that that one was indeed another dead end and they were still on the right track.

Yokoyama couldn’t help but be amazed by how his usual light attitude hadn’t gone away even in a situation like this one - it only made her want to smack him more, but at the same time, it was gradually helping her gain control over her feelings of panic and nervousness.

“In any case…” he gestured for her to take a right next, “we came up with a plan - with Natsume. We would’ve been found out really fast if it had been just the two of us, so we needed somebody to help make the case complicated enough to draw the trial out long enough for Sakurauchi to also create an escape route.”

“Why… didn’t you come to me instead?”

“Because Aragaki was more willing to smack Natsume around than do it to you,” he responded simply; Yokoyama clicked her tongue.

“Still… you gave me a heart attack back there. I would’ve liked a warning or something at least…”

“I’m sorry,” came the apology, actually sounding quite sincere. “The A.I. might have caught on if we told too many people, though. We didn’t want to risk that.”

“…I expect you to do your best to make up for it in the future,” Yokoyama let out a soft huff, but finally allowed herself to be convinced, carefully swallowing the grumpy and sulking reactions that had emerged one by one until now - right now wasn’t the time to be acting like an immature child anyway. “If Sakurauchi did that, then-“

“Aragaki is fine too,” Kageyama replied before she could finish, already anticipating what she was going to ask. “The other four… are stuck for now. We’ll have to figure something out once we’re out of here.”

Yokoyama craned her neck as she examined the strange hallway once again.

“Is that what this is- An escape route or whatever…?”

“She told us she might have to shut down some parts of the system to be able to make it work, so I dunno, maybe. I just know we gotta get out of here before we run out of time or else we’re toast.”

“You’re way too calm about that!” Yokoyama rushed ahead of him, the threat of impending doom or whatever the actual _fuck_ this thing was going to do to her giving her the last boost of speed she had needed. “You should’ve told me that sooner!”

“Maybe, but I wanted to explain all that other stuff to you first- and we’re fine anyway, aren’t we?”

“For _now_ , you overgrown child,” she threw her hair over her shoulder, breaking into a sprint soon enough.

Kageyama proved to be the far more athletic one, as she had expected, but fortunately she could keep up adequately enough until they finally happened upon what resembled a door made of light in the far distance, the sight giving her just a bit more energy to keep on going. She could only hope the others would be able to get out too - as long as one of the other three who apparently knew about this would be present, they should be fine…

She proceeded to shove Kageyama into the exit before she followed, praying with all her might that her nerves would be able to catch a break soon.

* * *

When the boy awoke next, his limbs felt heavy, and his brain somewhat foggy, as though he’d finally woken up from a dream that had lasted way more than it should have. He was already familiar with the sensation as he had gone through it once before, though this time around it was much more bearable, and he’d been left much more mobile. He supposed that was probably due to the time spent there being significantly shorter.

Managing to get to his feet steadily enough after a few tries, Kageyama was ready to leave the room already and start looking for someone who could update him, but fortunately there was no need to do any of that, as Hanamiya was already sitting atop the nearest counter; he gave Kageyama a tired, flat look.

“You’re really bad at not looking suspicious, you know that?”

Hanamiya slid onto the floor before Kageyama could respond, shoving him lightly.

“Help me move the ones that are awake, will you? God knows how much time we have left…”

“What did I miss?” Kageyama blinked, though he moved to comply anyway; Yokoyama murmured something unintelligible in his arms as he lifted her up. “Did something happen…?”

“ _Kinda_. Komatsu-san has a tracker in her bell earring thing, so we’re screwed unless we move asap. We were gonna shut off the program and just drag you guys away or something, thank fucking christ you actually got out on your own…”

His mind flashed back to the documents he’d read with Yokoyama days before, but it had already been so long they’d gotten much harder to remember.

“Is… that bad, or-? I mean, they already knew that we’re here, yeah?”

“The ones who were working with Izumi, _sure_. The people from Komatsu-san’s orphanage didn’t. The others must’ve cut contact with them or something to make them suspicious because the alarms went batshit earlier.”

Hanamiya almost fell flat on his face when Aragaki managed to jab him in the side lightly, and his frown only deepened.

“Tell your mistress that if she doesn’t let me drag her out, I’m dropping her on the floor and taking somebody else.”

It wasn’t like those guys could walk on their own yet, so there wasn’t much else they could do.

Hanamiya directed Kageyama towards the basement, instructing him to place the girl he was carrying into the small boat that they’d already presumably pushed into the water. While it did lead out into the open, the opening in the walls of the cave was narrow enough to give decent cover, especially compared with the lack of any artificial lighting.

“We’re shoving whoever we can on here and bailing,” Hanamiya announced once he’d finally caught his breath, having simply dropped Aragaki on board, out of energy. He took another moment to lean on his knees for support. “The others should be here soon… though I don’t know how much help the girls will be. They went to fetch Chiba-kun the last time I saw them.”

“What about Fujinomiya…?”

“She can go rot for all I care,” Hanamiya pursed his lips. “I’m not risking my life to save her.”

He’d already gotten going once again before Kageyama could ask any further questions, and the latter let out a small sigh; was it really okay to just leave her here…? Sure, he wasn’t too keen on having to keep an eye on her too, but…

He ended up shaking his head before he finally headed after the other boy; Hanamiya usually knew best, and he didn’t have time to be overthinking things right now anyway…

It took quite a bit of time, but slowly but surely, they managed to drag everyone on board one by one. Chiba apologised with gritted teeth for not being much help on his own, injured legs and all, but Kageyama simply placed his hat onto the shorter boy’s head before he could continue, attempting to calm him down with it - he received a grumpy mumble in return.

The only ones left were the ones who were still inside of the program… Izumi, Komatsu, Hayama and Akiyama. If they shut off the program, though, they’d be stuck like that, wouldn’t they…?

Just as Kageyama opened his mouth to ask what they should do, though, a bright, red light suddenly enveloped their surroundings.

* * *

 

She could tell what was going on, of course she could - and it frustrated her endlessly, to have everything taken from her without her being able to do anything about it.

Fujinomiya bit the inside of her cheek.

She’d promised she would hand over bodies once she was done, but to think that even without that they’d find a way to fulfill the deal on their own… How annoying…

No, if she couldn’t get what she wanted, she wasn’t just going to sit by and let _them_ take their share.

Her life had already been over the moment she was ejected from the program, so she had nothing to lose.

Getting to her feet, she walked alongside the wall, only forced to stop by the bars in her way. She couldn’t see well in the dark, but she managed to find the lock rather easily, reaching into her pocket for a hairpin.

Crouching down so she could have a better grasp on it, she got to work.

It wasn’t too difficult - she had already done this sort of thing countless times before, and her hands had gotten so used to the movement she could have probably successfully carried it out in her sleep; the lock was off before she knew it, and she snuck outside without making a sound.

The hallways were empty, of course they were… She would just have to avoid a couple of areas and she would more than likely be fine.

She found what she was looking for not long after, poking her head out from behind a corner first to make sure there was nobody around. _This_ part was much more risky, but as far as she could tell, they had all left by now.

Well, they wouldn’t be able to do much if they only spotted her by this point…

She approached the control panel on the wall, already familiarized with each and every button; her eyes soon settled on the one she’d been hoping to find undamaged. An almost hysteric giggle bubbled up in her throat when she realised that no further obstacles would arise after all, and she pressed the button with glee, hopping down onto one of the chairs without worry.

A monotone voice spoke over the intercom.

“ _The building will now self-destruct in 5 minutes. Please evacuate within the given time. If the option was chosen by mistake, please input the correct code to cancel it._ ”

She would stay here to witness the fireworks with her own two eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> epilogue will be up soon, not today though cuz im tired as hell, ill just wait a day or two before i sit down to write that (watch me break this and post it later today anyway djksfhdjks)


	21. Epilogue

Hanamiya stared at the ceiling wordlessly, paying the background noise around him no mind; it hurt his head to try to pay too much attention to all the whispers and murmurs anyway. Strangely enough, though, he couldn’t fall asleep either. A rare occasion, to say the least.

Turning his head to the side, even though his vision was relatively blurry without his glasses, he could still tell Kageyama was out cold already. Of course _he_ wouldn’t have trouble dozing off even at a time like this, huh… Maybe he just didn’t find the hospital beds as uncomfortably rigid as Hanamiya did.

He let out a soft sigh, wishing for once that his usual sleepiness would return.

His ears had been ringing for quite a while after the island had blown itself to pieces; while he’d never been on a boat before, apparently, Kageyama had managed to get the engine working, and they’d tried their best to get the hell out of there before they were toast with the rest. It hadn’t left the best taste in his mouth to have to leave behind the unconscious ones, but there hadn’t been much else they could do, so he’d resigned himself back to the apathetic position he’d gotten so used to to the best of his abilities.

It wasn’t necessarily working all that well, but the exhaustion that immediately washed over him after they were out of there also did its job.

They hadn’t talked to the police for long just yet, mostly because barely any of them could string a coherent sentence together. That was probably for the best… He wasn’t sure if he could handle being questioned when he was still in this state. He’d broken out in cold sweat several times earlier, his body having trouble transitioning out of fight or flight after experiencing that for so long.

Kageyama must have been a special kind of idiot to have so much less trouble with that.

Everyone they’d actually managed to drag out, as far as he could tell, was safe and alive.

He wasn’t looking forward to facing whatever disaster his life had turned to somewhere among his missing memories either, but he didn’t even want to think about that right now, stubbornly occupying his mind with other thoughts. He didn’t need to, and didn’t want to feel even more overwhelmed by all the sudden developments that had arrived one after the other.

Even though he wasn’t sleepy at all still, he closed his eyes anyway, trying to shut out the rest of the outside world that way.

Tomorrow would be a long day… but he would just have to power through it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> after what feels like 10 years its finally done jesus christ  
> i do actually have other kgs but?? i dont think ill write them bc im a lot more into making comics now so im pretty busy with those  
> either way this particular storyline is 100% over so i can finally stop feeling guilty abt not updating it for ages


End file.
